Statistical Literacy:
a vital
life skill

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2011 2011            09/23/22

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 StatLit News 2011

Highlights 2011
  • StatLit.org matures: Index views up 23%, page views up 18%. Visits down 2%, downloads off 5%.  Around 28,000 home page views, 122,000 page views, 170,000 visits and 195,000 downloads. Google-ranked #1 for "statistical literacy": 7th year.  Also #2 and #3.  Wikipedia was #4.  Schield at Augsburg ranked #5-#7.  Univ. of Wollongong ranked #8.  Wired Magazine's 2010 article was #9.

Best New Trade Books in 2011***

2011: New QR/StatLit Textbooks***

Best New Professional Books in 2011***

2011: Top New Journal Articles***

Top New Conference Papers in 2011***

*** Selected by the StatLit webmaster

Top 5 Most Downloaded Articles from StatLit.org in 2011
  1. Percentage Graphs in USA Today. Milo Schield 2006 ASA (17271; 10664; 13253; 14247; 8809).  Inception to date: 64,823.  3,730 downloads in Sept 2011 (2,523 in Oct): the highest months ever.

  2. The Cult of Statistical Significance by Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey  2009 ASA 6up 4up (3317; 3972; 999)

  3. Importance and Measurement of Pre-Service Teachers' Efficacy to Teach Statistics...    2009 ASA Harrell et al. (1728[11]; 2506)

  4. Interpreting the substantive significance of multivariate regression coefficients by Jane Miller 2008 ASA (1672[11]; 2094; 1412)

  5. Statistics for Political Science Majors. Gary Klass 2004 ASA (1492 [11]; 596[6]; 765; 215)

Top 10 Most Downloaded Articles from StatLit.org in 2011
  1. Statistical Literacy: A New Mission for Data Producers.  Milo Schield 2011 SJIAOS (1297) [New in 2011]

  2. Presenting Confounding Graphically Using Standardization (1291; 2084; 1985; 1616). Milo Schield, 2006 Draft for Stats magazine

  3. Teaching Statistical Literacy as Quantitative Rhetoric. ASA 2010 John Schmit 6up (1202[9]; 279[2]) [New in 2010]

  4. Some Difficulties Learning Histograms. Carl Lee & Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris ASA 2003 (1097; 1792; 991; 1179)

  5. Ambiguity Intolerance: An Impediment to Inferential Reasoning?  Robert Carver 2006 ASA (1089 [11]; 624[5]; 797)

STATISTICAL LITERACY for DATA PRODUCERS

Special Issue

The Statistical Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics (SJIAOS) Special Issue on Statistical Literacy  27 (2011) Contents.  Editors: Jim Ridgway (left) and Neville Davies (right)

Editorial by S-M. Tam. "Special Issue on Statistical Literacy"   P. 95-97.

New Mission For Data Producers

Statistical Literacy: A New Mission for Data Producers by Milo Schield (right).  P. 173-183.  "If national statistical offices are to be more effective in promoting evidence-based decision making that uses the data they provide, they should consider extending their missions to include “comprehensibility”: to provide accurate and timely data that is useful to and comprehensible by users."

  • "How statistical literacy, official statistics and self-directed learning shaped social enquiry in the 19th and early 20th centuries" by Gillian Lancaster. P. 99-111.  "In these [early] studies statistical literacy was demonstrated as the ability to describe and communicate about tabulated statistical information."  "Statistical literacy is crucial for understanding the world around us."
  • "Official Statistics and statistical literacy: They need each other" by Sharleen Forbes, Mike Camden, Nathaniel Pihama, Paul Bucknall and Maxine Pfannkuch. P. 113-128.
  • "The national statistical agency as educator" by Mary Townsend. P. 129-136.
  • "Statistical literacy and awareness as strategic success factors of a national statistical office – the case of Statistics Finland" by Reija Helenius and Heli Mikkelä.  P. 137-144.
  • "Creating statistically literate global citizens: The use of IPUMS-International integrated census microdata in teaching" by Ann Meier, Robert McCaa and David Lam.  P 145-156.
  • "The millennium development goals, national statistical offices, the international statistical literacy project and statistical literacy in schools" by Juana Sanchez, Sharleen Forbes, Pedro Campos, Paola Giacche, Mary Townsend, Gai Mooney and Reija Helenius. P. 157 -171.
  • "Responding to diversity in users' statistical literacy and information needs: Institutional and educational implications" by Iddo Gal and Scott T. Murray.  P. 185-195.
  • "Foundations for improving statistical literacy" by Jane M. Watson. P. 197-204.
  • "Developments of AtSchool projects for improving collaborative teaching and learning in statistics by Neville Davies.  P. 205-227.
  • "Does CensusAtSchool develop statistical literacy? by Iddo Gal. P. 229-230.
  • Discussion by Chris J. Wild.  231-233.
  • Rejoinder to Chris Wild and Iddo Gal's Comments by Neville Davies P. 235-236.

STATISTICAL LITERACY @ AUGSBURG

Stat Lit Online

Augsburg College offered a new course: teacher training on Statistical Literacy. The course (GST 200) was taught totally on-line in an accelerated six week format in May and June. The course used Moodle exercises, Odysseys2sense (tm) and the 2011 version of the Statistical Literacy textbook Syllabus. For more details, see Teaching Teachers Statistical Literacy Online.

Keene faculty study Stat-Literacy

Michael Caulfield (left, instructional designer) and seven other faculty from Keene College NH completed professional development in Augsburg's Statistical Literacy online. They completed 730 problems, analyzed 14 news stories and gave weekly feedback on the course.  Their feedback resulted in the 2011 version of the textbook. View Mike's Tutoring at Scale video. Slides 1up

OUTSTANDING JOURNAL ARTICLES

Test: Frequency vs. %

Communicating Data About the Benefits and Harms of Treatment by Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz. Annals of Internal Medicine; 7/19/2011, Vol. 155 Issue 2, p87-W33.  Large randomized trial. Conclusion: Natural frequencies are not the best format...

Significance vs. Reasoning

Significance testing as perverse probabilistic reasoning M Brandon Westover, Kenneth D Westover, Matt T Bianchi. BMC Medicine 2011, 9:20   Given a test of statistical significance (P-value <0.05) in favor of H1, subjects were asked, "What has been shown?"  Answers [%].  1. H0 is false [4%]. 2. H1 is true [0%]. 3. H0 is probably false [31%]. 4. H1 is probably true [20%]. 5. Both (1) and (2) [3%]. 6. Both (3) and (4) [36%]. 7. None of the above [6%].  {A must-read article. StatLit Editor.}

NUMERACY (NNN) JOURNAL

Numeracy: E-Journal

Numeracy is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal launched in 2008.  Numeracy aims to support education at all levels that integrates quantitative skills across disciplines. The journal seeks evidence-based articles. See Vacher's NECQL and PKAL presentations.

Numeracy Editors

Len Vacher (left) and Dorothy Wallace (right) are editors of Numeracy: Advancing Education in Quantitative Literacy published by the National Numeracy Network, supported by U. of S. Florida Libraries and hosted by the Berkeley Electronic Press™. NNN listserv

2011: Volume 4, Issue 1

2011: Volume 4, Issue 2

GRANTS FOR QR, QL and STATISTICS

Numeracy Infusion

NSF awards $600,000 to the City University of New York (CUNY) QR Alliance for "Numeracy Infusion Course for Higher Education (NICHE)." The goal is "to increase the level of QR instruction and assessment in undergraduate courses across a broad range of disciplines throughout the CUNY system."  PI: Esther Wilder (left) Blog. Co-PIs: Dene Hurley and Frank Wang.  Three-year grant 1121844.

School Stats Assessment

NSF awards $2 million to a consortium for "LOCUS: Levels of Conceptual Understanding in Statistics"  Goal: "develop two instruments to assess conceptual understanding of statistics ... aligned with Common Core State Standards for mathematics." PI: Tim Jacobbe (left, U-FL). Co-PIs: Robert delMas (U-MN), Bradley Hartlaub (Kenyon C) and Jeff Haberstroh (ETS). Four-yr continuing grant 1118168

High-School Teacher Education

NSF awards $400,000 to Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) for "Teacher Education: Learning the Practice of Statistics."  The goal is to develop "research-based materials that enable [school] teachers to facilitate students' progress toward statistical understanding."  PI: Anna Bargagliotti (right). Co-PIs: John Haddock, Celia Anderson and Mark Conley.  Two-year grant 1119016.

Assess Stats Teaching & Learning

NSF awards $92,000 to Univ. of Minnesota and $92,000 to Ohio State U. for "Evaluation and Assessment of Teaching and Learning About Statistics (e-ATLAS)."  The will allow statistical educators "to judge the effectiveness of its past and on-going efforts."  PI: Joan Garfield (right, UMn); Dennis Pearl (OSU).  Co-PIs: Robert delMas and Andrew Zieffler Two-year grants 1043141 and 1044812.

Playing Games with a Purpose

NSF awards $200,000 to Grinnell College for "A New Approach to Teaching and Learning Statistics."  Goal is to develop, implement and evaluate "interactive Web-based games and ... laboratory modules  to effectively teach statistical thinking and the process of scientific inquiry to undergraduate students."  PI Shonda Kuiper (left). Co-PI Rodney Sturdivant (USMA). 3-year grant 1043814

Designing Interactive Documents

NSF awards $180,000 to University of California-Berkeley  for "Learning From the Scientist's Lab Book: Designing Interactive Dynamic Documents for Teaching Statistical Thinking and Practice."  The goal is to transform "the statistics curriculum to foster the use of statistical thinking to solve important scientific problems ."  PI Deborah Nolan.  Two-year grant: 1043634

NSF Awards: 2007-2011

NSF awards mentioning these phrases by start-year (2011, 10, 09, 08, 07): numeracy (1,2,3,6,1), quantitative reasoning (4,5,3,4,4), quantitative literacy (1,3,5,6,2), statistical thinking (3,4,2,0,1), statistical reasoning (1,2,0,0,0) and statistical literacy (0,0,0,0,0).  NSF database totals: QR (20), QL (19), numeracy (14), ST (10), SR (5) and SL (0).

Vernier Grant to St. Josephs for QL

Vernier Grant to St. Joseph's College (Indiana). To to enhance quantitative literacy through student-developed interactive projects. (Sept 17).

Teaching Statistics In School Mathematics

Teach Stats@School

Carmen Batanero (right), Gail Burrill and Chris Reading edit Teaching Statistics in School Mathematics-Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Education: A Joint ICMI/IASE Study Table of Contents. Includes 37 articles on statistics education worldwide.

Developing Statistical Literacy

Jim Ridgway (right), James Nicholson and Sean McCusker authored "Developing Statistical Literacy in Students and Teachers", Ch 10, in Teaching Statistics in School Mathematics-Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Education.  Discusses "what statistical literacy is, why it is important" and "the need to keep pace with developments worldwide."  

NEW PROFESSIONAL BOOKS

Math for Life

Math for Life: Crucial Ideas You Didn't Learn in School by Jeffrey Bennett 1st.  "simply and clearly explains the key ideas of quantitative reasoning".  Applies them to everyday issues "most of the mathematical skills needed for quantitative reasoning are fairly basic, but the level of conceptual thinking can be quite advanced."  For more, see Jeff's "Math for Life" web page.

Understanding the New Statistics

Understanding The New Statistics: Effect Sizes, Confidence Intervals, and Meta-Analysis by Geoff Cumming.  "the ‘breakthrough’ text that finally shows how to analyze and interpret data ... without ...significance testing."   "The writing style is breezy and informal.  The quality of scholarship is excellent; the author is probably the top world expert on this subject." Interview

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.  A New York Times Top 10 Book for 2011. One of The Economist’s 2011 Books of the Year.  "Explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical." "exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking..."

Under-Educated Guesses

Uneducated Guesses: Using Evidence to Uncover Misguided Education Policies by Howard Wainer (Aug 28, 2011)   "a must-read for enthusiasts of evidence-based decision making and for those who make public policy decisions without consulting the evidence."  "a refreshingly fact-based view of a complex problem"
Other Wainer books and articles.

Bayes Rule/Theory: Triumphant

The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne.  "McGrayne is such a good writer that she makes this obscure battle gripping for the general reader."  "Top holiday reading." 

Thinking Statistically

Thinking Statistically by Uri Bram. "we'll see why supposed Casanovas might actually be examples of the Base Rate Fallacy; how to use Bayes' Theorem to assess whether your partner is cheating on you; and why you should never use Mark Zuckerberg as an example for anything. See the world in a whole new light, and make better decisions and judgements without ever going near a t-test."

Targeted Learning

Targeted Learning: Causal Inference for Observational and Experimental Data (Springer Series in Statistics) by Mark J. van der Laan (UC Berkeley) and Sherri Rose.  "Demonstrates targeted learning in epidemiological, medical, and genomic experimental and observational studies that include informative dropout, missingness, time-dependent confounding, and case-control sampling."

Targeted Learning

"Targeted Learning, by Mark J. van der Laan (left) and Sherri Rose, fills a much needed gap in statistical and causal inference. It protects us from wasting computational, analytical, and data resources on irrelevant aspects of a problem and teaches us how to focus on what is relevant – answering questions that researchers truly care about." - Judea Pearl, UCLA

Stat Lit in College Students (2012)

By Barbara Ann Wade. (Penn State)  "Knowing how important statistical literacy is, the purpose of this research was to measure statistical literacy in adult learners before and after they have completed a statistics class, or a research methods class with no prior statistics, or a research methods class with prior statistics.  Based on 2009 thesis at Penn State. TOC

Stat Lit in College Students

By Barbara Ann Wade  "test results showed a statistically significant difference among class types for the knowledge elements, statistical thinking, reasoning, and literacy, but no statistically significant differences for the critical questions" and "no significant differences on the dispositional elements, affect, cognitive competence, difficulty and value."

Guide to 50 Econ Indicators [2013]

The WSJ Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators That Really Matter: From Big Macs to "Zombie Banks," the Indicators Smart Investors Watch to Beat the Market.    "Simon Constable and Robert E. Wright offer investors powerful new tools to guide them through the markets. Whether it's the VIX index (which tracks the level of anxiety among investors) or the Vixen index ... "

Indicators: Quality of Life [2013]

Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research by Land, Michalos, and Sirgy. Goal: "to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century."  Social indicators are statistical time series “…used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change."

Sports' Greatest Streaks

Hot Hand: The Statistics Behind Sports' Greatest Streaks  by Alan Reifman.  Focuses on actual sports streaks, from the famous—Joe DiMaggio getting at least one hit in fifty-six consecutive games and the LA Lakers winning thirty-three straight games—to the less well-known, such as the University of Dayton men’s basketball team going 0-for-24 on three-point shots.

 

SELECTED SLIDES - POSTERS

Uncertainty: Maths Teachers

Getting Comfortable with Uncertainty: Maths Teachers and Statistics by Gai Mooney, Education Services Unit, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Conclusions: "Statistics is inductive!  Context matters; measurement matters and process matters."  "Why should teachers care?   Develop healthy scepticism [in teachers and students] without cynicism or niaivity"  Slides 6up. 22 August, 2011.

Statistical Literacy for All

Statistical literacy for all: teaching Critical Thinking with Data by Sue Finch and Ian Gordon (Univ. Melbourne). Includes "critical evaluation of statistical information and arguments." "200 word assignments: critical evaluation of a data-based argument; write a letter, email or commentary" “I have developed my capacity to think about quantitative information” (81% agreed)  Poster

Responsible Statistics Slideshow

Responsible Statistics: Using mathematics to shape public opinion by Andrew Nelson (U. Illinois, Urbana).  "Statistical Literacy: The ability to make sense of statistics.  [Statistical literacy] Involves critical evaluation of data, graphs, percentages and sampling techniques.  6up

Responsible Statistics Slideshow (continue)

Importance: As important as literacy of written language.
[Involves] Interpretation of descriptive statistics, scientific correlations, quality of an argument • Ability to form one’s own opinion by knowing how to correctly interpret data • Evaluate arguments and validity of claims".  6up

Ten Years to Statistical Literacy

The Royal Statistical Society getstats Campaign Ten Years to Statistical Literacy?   By Neville Davies at Statistics Canada. RSS activities: "The getstats campaign is about giving everyone the skills and confidence to use numbers well."  It involves "rebranding statistics as a discipline," providing "a citizen's charter for statistics" and "developing a course in statistical awareness."  1up copy

Schield Talks in 2011

Other talks by Milo Schield: Statistical Literacy Worldwide: 2010. 1/6/2011  MAA JMM StatEd 6up.    Statistical Literacy: Confounding.  University of Texas, San Antonio  1/13/2011 6up.     Odysseys Teach Critical Thinking. Poster, Augsburg College with Larry Copes. 5/10/2011.  Statistical Literacy Teacher Training Online at NNN 10/14/2011  6up.

NEW TEXTBOOKS

Common Sense [textbook]

Ethan Bolker (left) and Maura Mast have authored Common Sense: Rethinking QR.  Chapters: 1) Fermi problems, 2) units and unit conversions, 3) % [change], 4) inflation, 5) averages, 6) distributions [and graphs], 7) [linear functions], 8) [linear approximations], 9) [exponential functions], 10) paying off debt, 11) probability, 12) [rare events] and 13) [medical tests].

Common Sense [website]

Ethan Bolker and Maura Mast (right) have authored Common Sense: Rethinking QR.  "What matters more is our wish to change the way our students’ minds work – the way they approach a problem, or, more generally, the way they approach the world. We hope that in ten years our students will follow the news, confident in their ability to make sense of the numbers they find there."

QL: Thinking between Lines

Quantitative Literacy: Thinking Between the Lines by Bruce Crauder, Benny Evans and Jerry Johnson.  Topics include 1) critical thinking, 2) analysis of growth, 3) Linear and exponential change, 4) personal finance, 5) Probability, 6) statistics, 7) graph theory, 8) voting and 9) geometry.   Section 1.1: Public policy and Simpson's paradox: Is "average" always average?   Freeman

Why Mathematics?

Why DO I have to Know Mathematics: You Don't- But, That's the Problem by Rodney McNair.  "If mathematics is needed in college and in careers, then why would any college student ever ask why mathematics is so important? Ah ha! Perhaps, it’s not the students; maybe it’s the way we teach mathematics." Math outside the classroom.

Questions: Statistical Answers

Answering Questions With Statistics by Robert F. Szafran at Austin State Univ (TX).   Uses General Social Survey data from 1980 and 2010.    By examining changes in subjective beliefs (such as abortion) and objective characteristics (like marital status), students acquire a broad knowledge of basic statistics and extensive experience with SPSS. 

My Path to Math

Line, Bar, and Circle Graphs by Claire Piddock (pb).  Percentage by Marsha Arvoy and Dorianne Nardi (pb).  My Path to Math series.  Ages 6 and up.  "Simplify math concepts with colorful illustration and examples." Grades 2-3.

The Numbers Guy

Carl Bialik

Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal "Numbers Guy," published 133 article-venues in 2011 [different articles or same article in different venues], 106 in 2010, 63 in 2009, 24 in  2008, 11 in 2007 and 23 in 2006. He co-writes The Daily Fix, a sports column that appears each weekday morning on WSJ.com. Carl has a degree in mathematics and physics from Yale University. WSJ blog.

With Numbers, Context Can Be Everything

Abstract: California also measures its prison system by "operational capacity," or the number of prisoners who can be housed given actual conditions at prisons. Because of double-bunking, the state's operational capacity is nearly twice its design capacity, and its prisons were filled only 9% above operational capacity in 2009. Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jun 18, 2011. p. A.2.

STATS

Trevor Butterworth, editor of STATS, contributes to the Financial Times, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal.

ABC's Persecution Of Presidential Award-Winning Scientist Continues.

Pop a tab and pour a lie   "white-hat bias: a tendency to distort information to advance good causes "

More private liquor stores, more alcohol deaths? A.Norton

 Top 50 statistics blogs of 2011.

Rebecca Goldin, STATS Director of Research, is on the Mathematics faculty at George Mason University.

Brilliant ideas from the Washington Post: Learning math is stupid! Goldin and Merrick. 

High Wired: Does Addictive Internet Use Restructure the Brain?

STATS: We want people to think about the numbers behind the news.  Stats essays for 2011.

GENERAL NEWS

Statistical Literacy Certification

Certificate of Official Statistics.  "Qualification designed to improve the statistical literacy skills of state sector employees, especially policy analysts."  "The goal of this Certificate is to enable policy analysts to critically evaluate statistics releases, research reports and published policy and media documents for their appropriateness and quality ..."   Statistics New Zealand products, and their use in statistics education.  Brochure   Testimonials

Common-Core Stds Don't Add Up

Grant Wiggins: Unlike the English standards, "the mathematics components of the Common Core ... are a bitter disappointment.   In terms of their limited vision of math education, the pedestrian framework chosen to organize the standards, and the incoherent nature of the standards for mathematical practice in particular, I don’t see how these take us forward in any way."

 UK Statistical Publications

RSS-ASA: Significance

March How should we screen for breast cancer? by Howard Wainer.  Too much or too little scepticism? by Terry Speed.        June: Sheconomics: Why more women on boards boosts company performance by Karen Pine.         Sept Deming, data and observational studies by Young and Karr.        Dec. Assessing long-term risk with short-term data by Howard Wainer.

Teaching Statistics: Articles

Spring: Distance Learning for Teacher Professional Development in Statistics Education by Meletiou-Mavrotheris, et al.       Summer: When Should Zero be Included on a Scale Showing Magnitude? Marcin Kozak.           Fall: Cheating Partners, Conditional Probability and Contingency Tables. Jane Watson

QUOTES

STATISTICAL LITERACY

  • "Statistical literacy is the ability to function effectively in a world where evidence is available, but is not certain.  It involves understanding how to make decisions where data are needed or produced: from deciding which mobile phone to buy to evaluating the quality of new drug trials; from interpreting survey results to critiquing government policy on social issues such as health, crime, pensions and immigration" Editorial SJIAOS 2011.

  • "Our visions is that 'statistical literacy' should be seen within society as being a vital life skill."  RSS Education Vision

  • A society of statistically illiterate people is not a fully democratic society.  Barbara Ascari and Francesco Michele Mortati (IASE)

  • "Statistical literacy is crucial for understanding the world around us."  "Statistical literacy plays an important part in our every day lives, helping us to make sense of and apply sound judgement to new ideas and discoveries that can be oversensationalised by the media and press."  G.A. Lancaster  How statistical literacy, official statistics and self-directed learning shaped social enquiry in the 19th century.  SJIAOS 2011

  • "Statistical literacy involves products that use words, numbers and graphs together to communicate messages. It includes skills in making and using these products."   By Sharleen Forbes. et al.,Official Statistics and statistical literacy: They need each other"  SJIAOS 2011

  • Some colleges have recently introduced course requirements in financial literacy while others offer courses in statistical literacy; both types of courses are clearly useful, but neither covers the breadth of topics that we've covered in this book [Math for Life], which means they are not by themselves enough.  Jeffrey Bennett: Math for Life: Crucial Ideas You Didn't Learn in School

  • “Any claim coming from an observational study is most likely to be wrong.”  S. Stanley Young, Alan Karr Significance Vol. 8 Iss. 3 (Sept 2011).

QUANTITATIVE LITERACY, etc.

  • Quantitative reasoning in today’s US society is no luxury or elective; it is an essential. Dingman and Madison, Peer Review Summer 2011 AAC&U

  • In math, what we need is “quantitative literacy,” the ability to make quantitative connections whenever life requires (as when we are confronted with conflicting medical test results but need to decide whether to undergo a further procedure) and “mathematical modeling,” the ability to move practically between everyday problems and mathematical formulations (as when we decide whether it is better to buy or lease a new car).  How to Fix Our Math Education By Sol Garfunkel and David Mumford  New York Times Aug 24, 2011.  Copy

NUMERACY

  • there can be no doubt that numeracy - which includes the ability to understand, critique and use statistics and statistical arguments - is as important today as literacy.  Petocz and Sowey, Statistical Diversions in Teaching Statistics, Spring 2011, p. 29-32.

  • Numeracy "is not a discipline but, rather, a language crucial to most disciplines. The ability to adapt mathematical ideas to new contexts in everyday life is the signature of numeracy."  "There are two paramount criteria for the effective teaching of numeracy: 1) Development of conceptual understanding.  2) Engagement in a critical analysis and evaluation of how numbers affect our daily lives."  Teaching Numeracy: 9 critical Habits to Ignite Mathematical Thinking, p. 2 and 4.

OTHER JOURNAL ARTICLES

Statistical Literacy or Reasoning

A New Criterion for Confounder Selection. Authors: VanderWeele, Tyler J.1 Shpitser, Ilya2 Source: Biometrics; Dec2011, Vol. 67 Issue 4, p1406-1413.

Using plausible group sizes to communicate information about medical risks. Authors:Garcia-Retamero, Galesic.  Source: Patient Education & Counseling; Aug2011, Vol. 84 Issue 2, p245-250, 6p

AP Statistics: Building Bridges Between High School and College Statistics Education  by Christine Franklin. American Statistician, Aug2011, Vol. 65 Issue 3, p177-182, 6p; DOI: 10.1198/tast.2011.09111

Professor's Page Statistical Literacy: Connectivity for the Australian Curriculum.   Watson, Jane  Source: Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom; Aug2011, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p18-19.

When Should Zero be Included on a Scale Showing Magnitude? Marcin Kozak. Significance Vol 33, Iss 22 (53–58)  DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9639.2010.00456

The problem of confounding in studies of the effect of maternal drug use on pregnancy outcome by Bengt Källén, MD, PhD Tornblad InstituteObstetric and Gynecology International Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 148616

Quantitative Literacy-Reasoning

Twenty-First-Century Quantitative Education: Beyond Content.  Shannon W. Dingman, assistant professor of mathematics, University of Arkansas Bernard L. Madison, professor of mathematics, University of Arkansas

Beyond math skills: Measuring quantitative reasoning in context. By: Grawe, Nathan D.. New Directions for Institutional Research, Spring2011, Vol. 2011 Issue 149, p41-52, 12p; DOI: 10.1002/ir.379

Closing the Loop: Involving Faculty in the Assessment of Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning Skills of Biology Majors.  Authors: Hurney, Brown, Griscom, Kancler, Wigtil and Sundre.  Source: Journal of College Science Teaching; Jul/Aug2011, Vol. 40 Issue 6, p18-23, 6p

By the numbers: it's a matter of quantitative literacy to work toward equity in social justice issues. (spectrum)(Interview): An article from: Diverse Issues in Higher Education." Amazon 2011.

Low Health Literacy Hema Padmanabhan Ann Intern Med December 6, 2011 155:794;

Statistics (Logic, Philosophy)

Lessons from Inferentialism for Statistics Education by Arthur Bakker and Jan Derry. Mathematical Thinking & Learning, 2011, Vol. 13 Issue 1/2, p5-26. DOI: 10.1080/10986065.2011.538293.

The Reasoning Behind Informal Statistical Inference by Makar, Bakker and Ben-Zvi. Mathematical Thinking & Learning, 2011, Vol. 13 Issue 1/2, p152-173. DOI: 10.1080/10986065.2011.538301.

The Role of Context in Developing Reasoning about Informal Statistical Inference by Makar and Ben-Zvi. Mathematical Thinking & Learning, 2011, Vol. 13 Issue 1/2, p1-4. DOI: 10.1080/10986065.2011.538291.

Missteps in Multiple Regression Student Projects: Beyond Association-Not-Causation  by Marlene Smith. American Statistician, Aug2011, Vol. 65 Issue 3, p190-197, 8p; DOI: 10.1198/tast.2011.11075

Statistical & Distance Education

Distance Learning for Teacher Professional Development in Statistics Education by Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Efstathios Mavrotheris and Efi Paparistodemou. Teaching Statistics, Spring2011, Vol. 33 Issue 1, p2-8, 7p; DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9639.2010.00425.x

Rethinking Assessment of Student Learning in Statistics Courses by Garfield, Zieffler, Kaplan, Cobb, Chance and Holcomb. American Statistician, Feb2011, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p1-10; DOI: 10.1198/tast.2011.08241.

Teaching the Unthinkable in Introductory Statistics by William Gratzer.  Mathematics Teacher, Oct2011, Vol. 105 Issue 3, p230-234. 

Special Issue on Computer-Intensive Methods with Emphasis on Bootstrap and Medical Research Applications in the  Journal of Biopharmaceutical Statistics; Nov/Dec2011, Vol. 21 Issue 6.  Articles: Travelogue—A Newcomer Encounters Statistics and the Computer by Peter Bruce. p1158-1163.  The Bootstrap and Markov-Chain Monte Carlo by Bradley Efron.

IASE - Malahide Ireland

IASE in Ireland

Brian Phillips, James Nicholson and Milo Schield enjoying Ireland: home of Guinness beer where William Gossett, the inventor of the t-test, worked. Abstracts of all conference papers.

Increase StatLit

Italian Institute for Statistics (Istat):  Istat’s new strategies to increase statistical literacy by Barbara Ascari and Francesco Mortati (Italy).  IASE

See also slides "What happens if non-overlapping universes collide?"  by Nicholson, Ridgway and McCusker.

Statistics in Journalism

Andrew Garratt (RSS, Press and Public Affairs Manager) handles responses to public inquiries and consultations, policy development (e.g., National Statistics and Statistics and the law), developing and maintaining links with external stakeholders and ... statistics users, and delivering training on statistics in journalism and managing the awards for statistical excellence in journalism.

Social Construction of Statistics

Milo Schield  presented Teaching the Social Construction of Statistics6up  Joel Best says all statistics are socially constructed.  This paper investigates (1) Is Joel Best’s thesis true? (2) If so, should this fact be taught? (3) If so, what general principles involving the social construction of statistics can be taught that don’t rely on detailed knowledge?  ISI link

Attitudes Toward Statistics

Attitudes of Portuguese teachers towards statistics: A qualitative analysis.  By Martins, Nascimento and Estrad.  “I do not use statistics outside of school”  23% neutral, 23% disagree and 54% agree.  [Note that a majority of these school teachers do not use statistics outside school.]  "it is crucial to include and highlight the statistical literacy in teaching and training statistics with first cycle teachers."

Open Online Education

Outreach through Open Online Education.  By Kay Lipson (left) and Glenda Francis (right).  OAU students: older, weaker maths backgrounds and lower academic expectations. Yet "OUA Students reported highest overall satisfaction of all faculties and second highest student engagement."

ISI-Dublin

Stat Lit Session

Milo Schield organized a session on Statistical Literacy, presented "Epidemiological Models and Spotty Statistics" 6up, and was elected a member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). Milo (left) is shown with ASA Director: Ron Wasserstein (right).

Interpreting Social Data

Interpreting Economic and Social Data by Othmar Winkler. "The more varied the characteristics of the items included in that aggregate, the less clearly defined will be the resulting pulp -- the statistical aggregate."  "The larger a statistical aggregate, ... the fewer of the features of the socio-economic phenomenon remain recognizable."  An aggregate, a statistical figure alone cannot be interpreted

StatLit, Globalization & Internet

Statistical Literacy, Globalisation, and the Internet by Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson (left) and Sean McCusker. "the only plausible mechanism for improving [statistical literacy] SL is to use the data sources themselves to educate users.  Statistical Literacy Heuristics: See that effect size is bigger than measurement error.   Focus on effect size not significance level."  Slides 1up

Holmes and Schield

Milo Schield (right) consulted with Peter Holmes (left) in Sheffield on various aspects of statistical literacy and statistical education.  

ASA Journal of Statistical Education (JSE)

What does Mean Mean?

What does the mean mean? by Nicholas N. Watier, Claude Lamontagne (right), and Sylvain Chartier (University of Ottawa).  Presents the "socialist idea" (equal distribution) and the fulcrum or balance point idea. See also  Lesser.(UTEP) who noted that "socialist" might be non egalitarian while proposing the use of other explanatory ideas such as redistribution value,  fair share or "leveling" value.

Graphs and Multivariate Data

Using Interactive Graphics to Teach Multivariate Data Analysis to Psychology Students by Pedro M. Valero-Mora Universitat de València (right, Spain) and Rubén D. Ledesma Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina).   How to present principle component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis using graphical tools such as ViSta.  Download ViSta.

USCOTS

The Next Big Thing

2011 US Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS): The Next Big Thing.   See Rob Gould's webinar: Eat Less Salt, Drink More Wine, Dump The Cellphone, Eat More Salt, And Live Longer: Teaching Students To Understand The Role Of Data Collection In Statistical Inference 6up

Future: Stat Education Research

Slides for It Takes a Village: Future Directions for Statistics Education Research by Bob delMas, University of Minnesota.   

Marc Isaacson presented a activity: Olympic Success.  Milo Schield presented an activity: Hypothetical Thinking.

Teach Confounding

Daniel Kaplan (Macalester) and Milo Schield (Augsburg) presented a poster: Modelling in Context: Teaching Confounding and Adjustment through the Common Core Standards.

Stats come from where?

Marc Isaacson presented "Where Do Statistics Come From?"  "To say “Statistics Come from Data” is similar to saying “Babies Come from Hospitals”. While it is generally true and an appropriate answer for some audiences, it leaves out a whole lot of the interesting part of the story."

ASA JSM: Late-Breaking Session

US Supreme Court

Milo Schield (Augsburg) organized and chaired an invited late-breaking session: Supreme Court Finds Statistical Significance Not Necessary for Causation.  6up  150 attended. 

Is Significance Significant?

Daniel T. Kaplan (right Macalester College) presented Comments on US Supreme Court Matrixx Case: Is Significance Significant?"  Discussed whether the "topics covered in university-level statistics education is oriented toward supporting quantitatively-sophisticated, effective decision-making in the civic domain." Abstract  1up

Statistical Significance on Trial

Stephen Ziliak (Roosevelt U.) presented Matrixx v. Siracusano and Student v. Fisher: Statistical Significance on Trial Abstract. 1up   Note: this talk was based on a related paper in Significance magazine. 

Significance-Causation

Jay Kadane (left) presented "The tenuous relationship between tests of significance and causation: Matrixx and the Supreme Court. Abstract.  Donald Rubin (right) commented.  Abstract.

 

ASA: Statistical Literacy #14

Statistical Literacy #14

Milo Schield (Augsburg) organized and chaired the 14th annual topic-contributed session "Statistical Literacy: 2011" with 50-60 attendees in Miami, FL. Milo also presented Describing Quantitative Relationships Using Informal Grammar in a contributed session.  6up  1up  WB1  WB2

Pop-Stats Books and Stat-Ed

Kaiser Fung (New York Univ.), author of Numbers Rule Your World, presented Pop-Stats Books and Statistical Education.  "Recently, pop-stats books have captured the public's favor, overcoming the negative perception of the subject of statistics."  "What can educators learn from this publishing phenomenon? What is the role of pop-stats books in statistics courses? Abstract.    1up

QL and Financial Literacy

Joseph Ganem (Loyla University, Maryland), author of The Two-Headed Quarter, presented Integrating Quantitative and Financial Literacy. "This paper proposes that financial literacy be integrated into the current math curriculum rather than taught separately because it is an ideal subject for teaching quantitative reasoning."   Abstract.   6up

Statistics and Causation

Herbert Weisberg (Correlation Research, Inc.) presented Statistics and Causation: Past, Present, and Future. "The rationale for large-scale randomized clinical trials so predominates today that essential limitations of this gold standard are rarely considered."  "New realities imply the need to reconsider the ways in which these studies should be designed and analyzed in the future."    Abstract  1up

Reading the Numbers

David and Phyliss Whitin (Wayne State University) presented Learning to Read the Numbers: Critical Literacy and Numeracy in K-8 Classrooms. 1up.  "The presenters developed a heuristic that provides questions to guide learners in interrogating data-related texts. Abstract  

Assessing Quantitative Reasoning

Ernine Orta (right) and Nandini Kannan (Univ.Texas San Antonio) presented Assessing QR: What do Freshman Know? UTSA tests freshman on "knowledge of simple probability, interpreting data summaries and interpreting graphs. Comparisons by gender and ethnicity will be discussed." Abstract  6up

ASA JSM 2011

Teach Stats Using News Media

T. Paulette Ceesay (Merck & Co.) presented Teaching Statistics Using the News Media. Uses "news media to teach statistics; undergraduate students at a large urban university are the audience. However, this approach would also benefit secondary school students... The rewards and challenges of this approach will be discussed as well as students' reactions. Abstract 6up  SL

Making Statistics Memorable

Larry Lesser (Univ. Texas, El Paso) presented Making Statistics Memorable: New Mnemonics and Motivations. "Mnemonics (memory aids) have the potential to decrease anxiety and increase recall. They may also serve as triggers for thinking routines (e.g., Pfannkuch, 2010) and increase cognitive resources available for more conceptual thinking..."  Abstract

Increase Statistical Literacy

How Do We Promote Clinical Statistics Literacy of Emergency Medicine Residents: Is Clicker Technology the Answer?  by Penny Reynolds (Virginia Commonwealth) "Clickers were useful in increasing immediate engagement and participation, but did not reinforce or encourage learning outside of the sessions." "Understanding of risk increased from 25% to 70%." 6up slides

Teach Stats to Diverse Students

Teaching Statistics to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Amy Wagler (right) and Larry Lesser (Univ. of Texas El Paso). "strategies that help English language learners (ELL) usually help all students because Lesser and Winsor (2009) discuss research that indicates that students of all levels of English proficiency struggle with academic language used in statistics courses."

Student Confidence & Learning

Including Student Ability to Assess Learning with Other Assessment Tools by Zachariah Dietz, John Lovell (left) and Julia Norton.  On their final, students rated their ability [confidence] to answer 20 selected questions.  Correlations between confidence and competence are investigated for various types of problems and mental activities.   

Multivariate Analysis: Baseball

Robert Carver (Stonehill, Brandeis) presented "It May Be a Great Day for Baseball, but Is It a Great Day for a Knuckleball?"  "The pitch is notoriously difficult to control, but when effective its slow speed and wide arc leaves batters extremely frustrated."   Examines influences.  6up "The analysis is accessible to undergraduate students, illustrating the managerial utility of multivariate models"

Communicating Health Data

Making Data Talk: Communicating Health Data with Lay Audiences by David Nelson, Brad Hesse and Harry Kwon. This presentation provides "practical suggestions on how statisticians can better communicate data to lay audiences."  Introduces "the OPT-In (Organize, Plan, Test, Integrate) framework [to help] with communication, planning and decision making." Abstract   6up. QL Permission requested

Teaching Study Design

Teaching Introductory Statistics and Study Design to Residents in a Teaching Hospital by Lori Lyn Price, Jessica Paulus, and John Griffith (Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute). "Engaging the full set of participants is difficult, as many residents are required to attend regardless of their interest in the content." Seminar topics.

Discuss Stat Concepts Online

Virtual Discussion for Real Understanding by Kendra K. Schmid (Nebraska Medical Center). "This paper focuses on fostering “discussion” about statistical concepts and how they relate to each student on an individual level. The approach includes an online discussion board where students participate in guided questions and post and critique an article related to their field of study"

Spatial Context in Intro Stats

Ignoring the Spatial Context in Intro Stats Classes – And Some Simple Graphical Remedies by Nathan Voge and  Jűrgen Symanzik (Utah State).  "most introductory statistics books do not even suggest that ... data often are ... effected by ... spatial association." We show how some of the data used in [textbook] examples and exercises can be initially displayed via various map views.  Permission Requested: 

ASA: Statistical Literacy International

StatLit International Cooperation

Reija Helenius (left, Statistics Finland and co-director of the International Statistical Literacy Project) organized an invited session: Improving Statistical Literacy by International Cooperation.  Chair: Sonya Vartivarian (Government Accountability Office).  Milo Schield (W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project of Augsburg College) was the discussant.  6up

Statistical Literacy in UK

Gillian Lancaster (Lancaster University, England) presented Strategies for Stimulating Statistical Literacy and Understanding Quantitative Evidence in Higher Education in the UK.  "This paper gives examples of some of the teaching strategies and networking initiatives undertaken by the Postgraduate Statistics Centre, Lancaster University."   Abstract  6up

Global Initiatives: Stat Lit

Mary Townsend (Statistics Canada) presented Three global initiatives to further statistical literacy. Abstract 6up

StatLit and US Common Core

Roxy Peck (California Polytechnic State University) presented Statistical Literacy and the Common Core Curriculum in the United States. "Will teachers be prepared and ready to teach to the challenging conceptual content? Will materials be available to teachers to support instruction? Is "statistical literacy for all" achievable or just a pipe dream?   Abstract  6up

NEW BOOKS: EPIDEMIOLOGY

Rethinking Social Epidemiology

Rethinking Social Epidemiology: Towards a Science of Change. Editors:Patricia O'Campo and James R. Dunn. "provides an expanded vision of social epidemiology as a science of change."  Addresses "the causes of social inequalities in health (problem-focused research) [and] the implementation of interventions to alleviate ... marginalization and poverty (solution-focused research)"

Causality in the Sciences

Causality in the Sciences by Phyllis McKay Illari, Federica Russo and Jon Williamson.  "There is a need for integrated thinking about causality, probability and mechanisms in scientific methodology. Causality and probability are long-established central concepts in the sciences:" "a panoply of disciplines, ranging from epidemiology to biology, from econometrics to physics."

NEW BOOKS: PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL STATISTICS

Quantitative Models: Psychology

Quantitative Models in Psychology by Robert McGrath (Fairleigh Dickinson University).  "Using the organizing principle that quantitative methods are the building blocks of models, this book focuses on models of inference, models of measurement, and the modeling of psychological phenomena."  "covers everything needed at the graduate level and beyond."

Quantitative Ecologist

How to be a Quantitative Ecologist by Jason Matthiopoulos (University of St Andrews, Scotland). "slowly but surely instils an understanding of mathematics, statistics and programming, sufficient for initiating research in ecology.   ... enhanced by extensive use of biological examples and the computer language R for graphics, programming and data analysis."

Quantitative Criminology

Handbook of Quantitative Criminology. Edited by Alex Piquero and David Weisburd; Published by the APA.  "Key areas: (1) research design, (2) experimental methods, (3) methods for overcoming data limitations, (4) innovative descriptive methods, (5) estimation techniques for theory and policy, (6) topics in multiple regression, and (7) new directions in statistical analysis."

Association Graph: LogLinear

The Association Graph and the Multigraph for Loglinear Models by Harry Khamis (Wright State University). For students studying "the analysis of categorical data, to develop the ability to evaluate and unravel even the most complex loglinear models without heavy calculations or statistical software." Sage Publ.

Understand Quantitative History

Understanding Quantitative History by Loren Haskins and Kirk Jeffrey. "first text in statistics and quantitative methods for history students and other liberal arts students, which explains and applies modern methods of quantitative analysis to history. A title in the New Liberal Arts series, co-published with the MIT Press and sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation."

Understanding Educational Stats

Understanding Educational Statistics Using Microsoft Excel and SPSS by Martin Lee Abbott.   "presents the essential statistical procedures for drawing valuable results from data in the social sciences." Topics: "Single-sample tests, Repeated measure tests, ANOVA [one way and factorial],  Independent t-tests, Chi square, Correlation, Bivariate regression and Multiple regression."

NEW BOOKS: EDUCATION

Visible Learning for Teachers

Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing impact on learning by John Hattie. "Written for students, pre-service and in-service teachers, it explains how to apply the principles of Visible Learning to any classroom anywhere in the world." Offers "concise summaries of successful interventions and implementation" of the principles from Visible Learning (2009). ."

Teaching Fractions

Strategies for Teaching Fractions: Using Error Analysis for Intervention and Assessment by David B. Spangler (pb). "David B. Spangler outlines powerful diagnostic and NCTM- and Common Core State Standards-aligned RTI strategies for analyzing student errors and provides specific interventions for each error pattern."

NEW BOOKS: NUMERACY

Teaching Numeracy

By Margie Pearse and  Kate Walton. Teaching Numeracy: 9 Critical Habits to Ignite Mathematical Thinking. Habit 3: identify similarities and differences, recognize patterns, organize and categorize ideas, investigate analogies and metaphors. Habit 4: Represent mathematics non-linguistically. Habit 5: Predict, infer, recognize trends, use patterns, and generate and test hypothesis. 4/2011

Building Numeracy

Building Powerful Numeracy for Middle and High School Students by Pamela Weber Harris.  Two big ideas: 1) Teach the importance of representation... such as the open number line, the open array, and the ratio table. 2)  Teach with problem strings: purposefully designed sequences of related problems that help students construct numerical relationships. 8/2011

NEW BOOKS: DATA

Visualize This: Flowing Data

Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics by Nathan Yau. "Offers step-by-step tutorials and practical design tips for creating statistical graphics, geographical maps, and information design to find meaning in the numbers"  "Nathan Yau is a PhD candidate in Statistics at UCLA and a lifelong data junkie."

Looking at Data

Beautiful Visualization: Looking at Data through the Eyes of Experts. Edited by Julie Steele and Noah Iliinsky.  "Successful visualizations are beautiful ... for elegant layers of detail that efficiently generate insight and new understanding."  "examines the methods of two dozen visualization experts. Together they demonstrate how visualization can help us make sense of the world."

Big Data

Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity [Paperback] by James Manyika and Michael Chui (McKinsey Global).  "Big data will help to create new growth opportunities and entirely new categories of companies. Many will be companies that sit in the middle of large information flows where data ... can be captured and analyzed."

Data Dynamite

Data Dynamite by W. David Stephenson "... gives us a preview of what life will be like when data is available to all who need it and organizations become data-centric." "free, real-time data really is 'dynamite,' just waiting for us to show the vision and determination to make it available."  "new data visualization tools that help transform the data into critical knowledge...."

Numbers: Data for Teachers

Beyond the Numbers: Making Data Work for Teachers & School Leaders pb. by Stephen White 2nd ed. Helps teachers and school leaders make wise decisions with imperfect data. Uses "proven, established components delineated in each chapter. New topics covered include Common Core Sate Standards... and new assessment systems designed to improve instruction..."

Fluencies for the Digital Age

Literacy Is NOT Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age. By Lee Crockett, Ian Jukes and Andrew Churches. "To be a global digital citizen, one must be fluent in collaboration, media and information so that one can be fluent in creativity and solutions. includes sample lessons: grade 4 science, grade 6 mathematics, grade 8 social studies and grade 10 language arts."

NEW EDITIONS

Understandable Statistics 10th

Brase and Brace: "Much of statistical literacy is the ability to communicate concepts effectively."  This text book "ensures that the student knows what is being covered at every step along the way to statistical literacy." 10th ed.

Teaching Fractions & Ratios 3rd

Teaching Fractions and Ratios for Understanding: Essential Content Knowledge and Instructional Strategies for Teachers 3rd ed. by Susan J. Lamon. "helps teachers build the comfort and confidence they need to begin talking to children about fractions and ratios."  "clear distillation of complex ideas and the translation of research into usable ideas for the classroom."  10/2011

Guide to Numeracy: 2nd Ed

Chambers Adult Learners' Guide to Numeracy by Geoff Mainwaring. aimed at adults who lack confidence in their numeracy skills. "The two-color text is clearly and spaciously laid out, and plentiful examples, diagrams, and exercises reinforce all the learning points." "based around the "Skills for Life" numeracy curriculum created by the Department for Education and Skills." 4/2011

Intro to Stats & Data Analysis

Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis 4th ed. [Hardcover] By Roxy Peck, Chris Olsen and Jay L. Devore. "introduces you to the study of statistics and data analysis by using real data and attention-grabbing examples." 

PEOPLE

Best & Schield Consult

Joel Best and Milo Schield met (12/27) and reviewed why quantitative educators were so unwilling to fully accept Joel's claim that all statistics are socially constructed.  As one statistical educator noted, "This might bring our discipline into disrepute."

Schield not Promoted at NNN

As the Vice President of the National Numeracy Network (NNN), Milo was the presumptive candidate to become the President.  But after giving his paper, Teaching Statistical Literacy Online, and stressing the importance of context and critical thinking in teaching statistical literacy (6up), an alternate candidate was proposed and elected by the NNN Board of Directors (Oct 15).  In a related development, Schield was nominated, but not elected, as head of the Statistical Education SIG of the MAA.

GENERAL NEWS IN 2011

  • 2011 Nov 6:  Ireland's John Hooper Medal for StatisticsComments by Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock T.D. "Statistics lie at the heart of the type of quantitative reasoning necessary for making important advances in the sciences, such as medicine and genetics, and for making important decisions in business and public policy, and indeed in our daily lives. "The study of Statistics is not just an essential part of one’s formal mathematical education but is an important part of what it means to be numerate."

  • 2011 Nov 1.  Math for Life: Crucial Ideas You Didn't Learn in School by Jeffrey Bennett.  How can we solve the national debt crisis? Should you or your child take on a student loan?  Is it safe to talk on a cell phone while driving?  Are there viable energy alternatives to fossil fuels? What could you do with a billion dollars? Could simple policy changes reduce political polarization? These questions may all seem very different, but they share two things in common. First, they are all questions with important implications for either personal success or our success as a nation. Second, they all concern topics that we can fully understand only with the aid of clear quantitative or mathematical thinking. In other words, they are topics for which we need math for life—a kind of math that looks quite different from most of the math that we learn in school, but that is just as (and often more) important. In Math for Life, award-winning author Jeffrey Bennett simply and clearly explains the key ideas of quantitative reasoning and applies them to all the above questions and many more. He also uses these questions to analyze our current education system, identifying both shortfalls in the teaching of mathematics and solutions for our educational future. No matter what your own level of mathematical ability, and no matter whether you approach the book as an educator, student, or interested adult, you are sure to find something new and thought-provoking in Math for Life.

  • 2011 Oct 24:  QR Faculty Positions. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore. The three appointees will form the core of a team with the task of developing QR as a required part of the foundations of USP's curriculum. We are aiming for rigorous and intellectually sophisticated courses, which focus more on quantitative approaches in critical thinking than on the mathematical tools themselves. Classes will be themed around a topic developed by the instructor, but with common QR components across all courses. QR-Foundation draft template. Further questions about the position should be directed to Professor John Richardson, Director, USP at uspbox24@nus.edu.sg

  • 2011 Oct 23. Innumeracy by Alan Penman in Significance. I’m concerned about public “Innumeracy”, also known as “Quantitative Illiteracy”, a condition that affects millions of adults on both sides of the Atlantic, according to recent surveys. About 22% of the American population scored at the lowest levels of quantitative literacy, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Adult Literacy Survey. In the UK, the Vorderman Task Force reported that 24% of working adults are "Functionally Innumerate". These days we are deluged with data, but we don’t seem to have the right mental equipment to make sense of it all. We are, literally, drowning in numbers. Is the condition treatable? I’m not sure - humans have an innate number sense, but this is approximate and limited and just may not be capable of handling such large quantities. Nevertheless, we can surely do a better educational job than we are now. “Quantitative Literacy”, which is even more fundamental than mathematical or statistical literacy, has several components, but key ones are the ability to interpret data and draw correct inferences. Shouldn’t we make this a basic and integral part of our education curriculum, beginning in first grade?

  • 2011 Oct 6, Tobias Bucknell.  Statistical Literacy thoughtsComment on Pinker's comment (Oct 4).  "Education is an antidote. Statistical literacy is a must."

  • 2011 Oct 4, Steven Pinker "One necessity is greater statistical literacy among the population and especially among journalists. People need to think in terms of proportions rather than salient examples, to appreciate orders of magnitudes (ten thousand deaths versus ten million deaths), to distinguish random blips from systematic trends, and to be aware of—and thereby discount—their own cognitive biases. When Harvard revamped its undergraduate curriculum a few years ago, I lobbied (unsuccessfully) for a statistical and analytic thinking requirement."  Freakonomics Blog

  • 2011 Oct 1, David Broussoud, Quantitative Literacy vs. Mathematics. "A QL requirement should be independent of a mathematics requirement. If your students need algebra, QL should not replace that. In the other direction, algebra is not a substitute for QL. The mathematical and statistical skills needed for QL are basic. Algebra need not be a pre-requisite. What makes this college-level material is that these skills are applied and interpreted in messy, real-world situations, using quantitative approaches to aid analysis of complex social issues. In many respects, the natural home for QL is in the social sciences, but I believe that math and stat departments have an important role to play in keeping the mathematics of QL honest and encouraging quantitative thinking as one of the important tools for studying social issues."  "I am suspicious of any program that claims to be QL but is taught exclusively by mathematicians. I also should add that Macalester has no mathematics requirement for graduation, but it does have a QL requirement. I heartily endorse this choice. I do not see a need for all students to study college-level mathematics, but I do see a need for improving their ability to apply quantitative reasoning."  MAA Launchings

  • 2011 Oct 3. Ian Thorpe "Basic statistical literacy is not actually that hard. It’s not difficult to learn how to understand fractions and ratios and how to read data tables or understand graphs and charts, or how to use them effectively (and honestly) in communicating statistical data – if more effort was placed on teaching them and they were more valued. And just this basic understanding could help avoid many incorrect interpretations of data and the faulty decisions which emanate from them."  Blog

  • 2011 Aug: Statistical Literacy, Globalisation, and the Internet by Ridgway, Nicholson and McCusker at the 2011 World Conference of the ISI. "Every interesting problem in health, crime, poverty, environment, education, personal well being is multivariate, has non-linear relationships [and] has confounding variables."  "You have to be able to DESCRIBE the phenomena before you begin.  DESCRIPTION brings you face to face with big statistical ideas –quality of data, study design, measurement error, interaction, effect size."  "Statistical Literacy 2011 is awareness of the ‘politics of data’: the choice of measures reflects values and philosophies; [the] Aesthetics of measurement."  "We are going to be redefining ‘statistical literacy’ for rather a long time."

  • 2011 June 27: "one of our objectives as Stats SA is to stimulate interest towards statistical literacy".  Pali Lehohla is South Africa’s Statistician-General and head of Statistics South Africa.

  • 2011 June 7: "Creating statistically literate global citizens: The use of IPUMS-International integrated census microdata in teaching." By Meier, A., R. McCaa, and David Lam Statistical Journal of the IAOS: Journal of the International Association for Official Statistics, 27(3): 145-156. "This paper illustrates two approaches to using IPUMS-I census microdata in the university curriculum to promote statistical literacy among undergraduates."

  • 2011 May 26: Dyscalculia: as common as Dyslexia but more of a life handicap.  Story.

  • 2011 April 19: Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff by John Stewart. A Teaching Moment on Numeracy by Freakonomics (7/19) who say that the first statistic in John Stewart's book is wrong.

  • 2011 April 8: Tackling the challenge of poor numeracy skills.   UK Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). Report.  "The importance of literacy as a precondition of learning and progress at work is widely understood. The challenge is in giving numeracy the same status, so that learners, providers, tutors and employers all see numeracy as essential to achieving vocational qualifications and career and personal goals."   "literacy, communication skills, numeracy and enthusiasm are the most important employability skills ..., and a lack of them in a candidate is a “deal-breaker” for many employers."  See also the 1999 UK Moser report, A fresh start – improving literacy and numeracy, and the 2011 UK NIACE inquiry on adult numeracy, Numeracy Counts.

  • 2011 April:  Towards more accessible conceptions of statistical inference C. J. Wild, M. Pfannkuch1, M. Regan, N. J. Horton. "if the goal is to introduce the idea of statistical inference to statistical beginners without the use of computational aids and with minimal mathematics, then arguably this paper represents the single biggest advance in several decades of concerted effort in statistical education." Milo Schield

  • 2011 March 31: Statistical literacy is a great asset: Kalam (Former President of India) laying the foundation stone for Sankhya -- the National Museum of Statistics at the University of Hyderabad. 

  • 2011 March 28: Teaching Statistics - Early View Going Beyond the Book: Towards Critical Reading in Statistics Teaching by Andrew Gelman. Using Pictures to Enhance Students' Understanding of Bayes' Theorem by David Trafimow.  Cheating Partners, Conditional Probability and Contingency Tables by Jane M. Watson.

  • 2011 March 22: US Supreme Court rules against requiring statistical significanceJustice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court on Tuesday, roundly rejected Matrixx’s proposal that information can be material only if it meets standards of statistical significance. “Given that medical professionals and regulators [FDA] act on the basis of evidence of causation that is not statistically significant,” she wrote, “it stands to reason that in certain cases reasonable investors would as well.”  Supreme Court Docket   Matrixx Petition  Respondents' Brief  Matrixx Reply Brief   Supreme Court Opinion. Amicus briefs:  Economists Litan and Mason, McCloskey-ZiliakMcCloskey-Ziliak crusade. 

  • 2011 March 15: USDA, FFA HELP STUDENTS CONNECT AGRICULTURE TO REAL LIFE EXPERIENCEClassroom-Ready Curricula Linking Agriculture to Science, Math and Social Studies Available Published: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 5:14 PM CDT WASHINGTON, March 14, 2011 – In celebration of National Ag Day on March 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the National FFA organization announce the availability of classroom-ready resources aligned with national curricula standards for science, math and social studies. These educational tools use the 2007 Census of Agriculture to promote communication skills, math, and statistical literacy among kindergarten through 12th grade students.

  • 2011 March: Contest -- QL in the Media (Best and Worst).  SIGMAA-QL. Deadline 12/1/2011. Winners announced at 2012 JMM.

  • 2011 March: Data Pointed: Fascinating data visualization research blog site by Stephen Von Worley.

  • 2011 March: Neil Lutsky Recipient Amer. Psychological Foundation's "Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award."  This award recognizes "a significant career of contributions as an exceptional teacher of psychology." Lutsky was nominated for this recognition by a group of his former students at Carleton and by colleagues in the psychology teaching community.

  • 2011 Feb 15: Johns Hopkins offers Statistical Literacy and Reasoning in Nursing Research. NR110.507. 

  • 2011 Feb 7:  Social Psychologist Sees Bias Within. New York Times    Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams.    Understanding a new study about discrimination. By Alison Gopnik Slate.

  • 2011 Jan 25: Low expectations and other forms of bigotry. The Economist. The decision to publish revised school league tables showing how many pupils achieved a reasonable pass in five core subjects (English, maths, a foreign language, a science subject and either history or geography) exposed how many schools were boosting their scores by pushing pupils into soft, often vocational subjects which counted for as much as a pass in chemistry, French or history.

  • 2011 Jan: QL and Democracy +10: MAA President David Bressoud marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Mathematics and Democracy: The Case for Quantitative Literacy in his January 2011 Launchings column. "Quantitative literacy is "the power and habit of mind to search out quantitative information, critique it, reflect on it, and apply it in [one’s] public, personal, and professional life" [2]. The mathematics can be very simple. It is the ability to work in context that makes this a demanding discipline, and, for quantitative literacy, context is everything. The goal is to empower students to reason with the complex quantitative information that is omnipresent in today’s world."

TECHNICAL NEWS IN 2011

  • 2011 Dec 3.  Citizen science makes statistical literacy critical Simply Statistics blog.  "It strikes me that statistical literacy is critical if the citizen science movement is going to go forward. Ideas like experimental design, randomization, blinding, placebos, and sample size need to be in the toolbox of any practicing citizen scientist.  One major drawback is that there are very few places where the general public can learn about statistics. Mostly statistics is taught in university courses. Resources like the Kahn Academy and the Cartoon Guide to Statistics exist, but are only really useful if you are self motivated and have some idea of math/statistics to begin with.    Since knowledge of basic statistical concepts is quickly becoming indispensable for citizen science or even basic life choices like deciding on healthcare options, do we need “adult statistical literacy courses”? These courses could focus on the basics of experimental design and how to understand results in stories about science in the popular press. It feels like it might be time to add a basic understanding of statistics and data to reading/writing/arithmetic as critical life skills. I’m not the only one who thinks so."

  • 2011 Nov 1.  Math for Life by Jeffrey Bennett.  "Focus on quantitative reasoning .. to fulfill the college math requirement.  Because quantitative reasoning is so important to modern life, it is a great disservice to make the requirement anything else.  Some colleges have recently introduced course requirements in financial literacy while others offer courses in statistical literacy; both types of courses are clearly useful, but neither covers the breadth of topics that we've covered in this book, which means they are not by themselves enough. (Note, however, that such courses can be great options for one semester of a two-semester quantitative reasoning requirement.)"

  • 2011 October 29.  The 5 Most Critical Statistical Concepts [Skills for a statistician].  By Simply Statistics blog.  "(A) The ability to manipulate/organize/work with data on computers - whether it is with excel, R, SAS, or Stata, to be a statistician you have to be able to work with data. (B) A knowledge of exploratory data analysis - how to make plots, how to discover patterns with visualizations, how to explore assumptions.  (C)  Scientific/contextual knowledge - at least enough to be able to abstract and formulate problems. This is what separates statisticians from mathematicians. (D) Skills to distinguish true from false patterns - whether with p-values, posterior probabilities, meaningful summary statistics, cross-validation or any other means. (E) The ability to communicate results to people without math skills - a key component of being a statistician is knowing how to explain math/plots/analyses."

  • 2011 October 13-15.  Appalachian College Association (ACA) 2011 Summit XIV.  Crown Plaza, Asheville, NC.  Schedule of QL presentations.   Schield: Abstracts of selected sessions.  NNN meetings: Saturday:  Guests and prospective members: 4:30-6:30 PM.  Supper and after-supper planning meeting.  Sunday: Board and planning meetings.  Caren Diefenderfer (Hollins) elected President; Eric Gaze (Bowdoin) elected Vice President. Papers: Teaching Teachers Statistical Literacy Online by Schield   6up 

  • 2011 Oct 13.  Measuring middle school students' interest in statistical literacy.  Carmichael, Colin S. and Callingham, Rosemary and Hay, Ian and Watson, Jane (2010)  Mathematics Education Research Journal, 22 (3). pp. 9-39. ISSN 1033-2170  Abstract The following paper describes the development of an instrument designed to assess middle school students' interest in statistical literacy. The paper commences with a review of the literature as it relates to interest in this context and then proposes a theoretical model upon which the proposed instrument is based. The Rasch Rating Scale model is then applied to student responses to items in the instrument and fit statistics are analysed in order to assess the extent to which these responses conform to the requirements of the measurement model. The paper then presents evidence, including interview data, to support the validity of interpretations that can be made from the proposed instrument. The findings suggest that the proposed instrument provides a theoretically sound measure of middle school students' interest for statistical literacy that will be useful for the evaluation of interventions aimed at developing these students' statistical literacy.

  • 2011 Oct 6.  Statistical Literacy for Medical Librarians: Swimming in a Whirlpool of Conflicting Medical Claims by Instructor: Steve Simon, P. Mean Consulting. One-day (8 hours) face-to-face for $175.  Course details

  • 2011 Sept 28.  Teaching Statistics in School Mathematics-Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Education, edited by Carmen Batanero, Gail Burrill, and Chris Reading. A Joint ICMI/IASE Study: The 18th ICMI Study. This Springer book is "intended to address the lack of attention to teaching statistics by promoting international collaborative research specifically focussed on the education and professional development of teachers to teach statistics."  Springer: Cost $239; Individual Book Chapter (Electronic Only) $24.95.  Amazon cost: $190. 
    Chapter 23. Developing statistical literacy in students and teachers: Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson, and Sean McCusker. Abstract: "While statistical literacy is gaining much more recognition as something that all citizens need in order to function fully in a modern society, there is much less agreement as to exactly what is meant by the term. This chapter discusses what statistical literacy is, why it is important for children at school and for teachers. and the need for our understanding to evolve to keep pace with developments worldwide. It explores the potential of new curriculum in South Africa and New Zealand, and the work being done in many different countries by statistical agencies to support members statistical literacy. A new case study where naive students and teachers develop skills by engaging with complex evidence on a topic of real social import is also described.

  • 2011 Sept 16: Statistical Literacy for All: Critical Thinking about Data by Sue Finch and Ian Gordon. "An outstanding poster about a top-ranked Statistical Literacy course for first-year college students." StatLit Webmaster

  • 2011: September 10-16.  Conference of The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project. Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.

  • 2011 Sept 17: Vernier Grant to St. Joseph's College (Indiana). To enhance quantitative literacy through student-developed interactive projects.

  • 2011 Aug 25: Deming, Data and Observational Studies: by S. Stanley Young and Alan Karr Published: Aug 25, 2011 - Significance Magazine, Volume 8 Issue 3 (September 2011) Doi: 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2011.00506.x “Any claim coming from an observational study is most likely to be wrong.” Startling, but true. Coffee causes pancreatic cancer. Type A personality causes heart attacks. Trans-fat is a killer. Women who eat breakfast cereal give birth to more boys. All these claims come from observational studies; yet when the studies are carefully examined, the claimed links appear to be incorrect. What is going wrong? Some have suggested that the scientific method is failing, that nature itself is playing tricks on us. But it is our way of studying nature that is broken and that urgently needs mending, say S. Stanley Young and Alan Karr; and they propose a strategy to fix it.

  • 2011: August 21-26. 58th World Statistics Conference, International Statistical Institute (ISI). Dublin Invited Paper Sessions  Special Topic SessionsProposed IASE-sponsored sessions and session organizers.   1st Bulletin 
    STS08 Statistical Literacy: Making Sense of Statistical Studies, Roxy Peck 6upStatistics in the News, Jean-François Plante, Nancy Reid
    Interpreting Economic and Social Data, Othmar Winkler;  Multivariate Thinking in Precollege Social Sciences, James Nicholson
    Epidemiological Models and Spotty Statistics, 6up Milo Schield (Session organizer)
    IPS 24 Causal Inference from Observational Studies Arvid Sjölander.  
    IPS 47 Applying Results of Statistics Education Research to Teaching Statistics.  Joan Garfield and Hans Van Buuren
    IPS 48 Teaching Courses in Probability Modeling. Alan Rossman
    IPS 49 Should One Attempt to Integrate Qualitative Research Approaches in Traditional Statistics Courses? If yes, how? Irena Ograjensek
    IPS 50 Opportunities and Pitfalls of E-learning, Virtual Learning Environments and Open Education Resources.  Rolf Biehler and Abbas Bazargan
    IPS 51 Enhancing Statistics Education Through International Co-operation and the Use of International Data (joint with IAOS). Reija Helenius
    IPS 53 Using Popular Books and Entertainment in Teaching Statistics Patrick. Murphy
    STS 22: Key indicators as main tools for communicating statistics to policy makers. Pieter Everaers
    STS 34: The role of subject attitudes in learning statistics: empirical evidence.  Nalini Ravishanker
    STS 36: Democracy and Statistics,   Evdokia Xekalaki

  • 2011 August 19-20.  IASE Satellite Conference: Statistics Education and Outreach. Venue: 16 km north of Dublin Ireland in the Grand Hotel in Malahide.  Deadlines: Other papers, posters, presentations for the proceedings: 30th September 2011.   IASE Satellite conference   Papers: Schield: "Teaching the Social Construction of Statistics." 6up

  • 2011 Aug 4-6. MAA MathFest 2011, Lexington, Kentucky. Registration and Housing open April, 1. Abstract submission open in February.  Contributed paper sessions (abstracts requested): (8) Quantitative Reasoning and Literacy: Pedagogical Strategies.  This session is intended to look at the latest research into the issue of Quantitative Literacy, as well as pedagogical issues and strategies that have been employed at various institutions. Organizer: Mike LeVan, Transylvania Univ.    Abstracts must reach the MAA by Friday, April 29. 
    Minicourses: An In-Class Role Playing Game for Quantitative Literacy: Social Security, 1935 by John Curran and Andrew M. Ross, Eastern Michigan Univ.
    Panels: Assessing Quantitative Literacy, Organizer: Aaron Montgomery, Central Washington University Panelists: Bernard Madison, University of Arkansas, Semra Kilic-Bahi, Colby-Sawyer College and Donna Sundre, James Madison University.  Sponsor: SIGMAA QL.  "Quantitative Literacy (QL) and Quantitative Reasoning (QR) requirements are becoming more common at the undergraduate level and, as a result, there is a growing need for assessment of student learning and program effectiveness in these areas. While assessing basic mathematical proficiency has a long history, both QL and QR skills are often described as being exhibited within a deeper context. This need for context presents a new challenge when developing assessment tools. This panel will focus on presenting past experiences with developing assessment strategies for quantitative literacy, both in terms of assessing the level of understanding of an individual student and assessing the effectiveness of a quantitative literacy program."

  • 2011 Aug 1.  New ASA Fellows include Nolan, Weisberg and Thombs. Deborah A. Nolan, University of California, Berkeley, CA, Herbert I. Weisberg, Correlation Research, Inc., Needham, MA.  Lori A. Thombs, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

  • 2011 Aug 1. International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) Newsletter 4.1  "The ISLP Poster Competition was a success  Results of the ISLP Poster Competition 2010-2011 will be announced in ISI Dublin 2011 Congress. It is great that 4793 students participated in the competition from all over the world."  "We are now gathering together persons who are interested in developing the ISLP Strategy in the following areas: - schools - universities - media - libraries - decision makers - citizens - national statistical offices. Join us to develop the ISLP model."

  • 2011 July 21-22: Workshop on Inquiry-Based Statistics Education.  Quantitative Analysis Center, Wesleyan Univ.  Two-day Workshop on Inquiry-Based Statistics Education whose objective is to provide attendees with a thorough introduction to a supportive, multidisciplinary inquiry-based statistics curriculum and the development of resources that take advantage of students’ natural curiosity and provide a common language for approaching questions across numerous scientific disciplines. We will tackle several of the most common challenges in teaching a first course in statistics including the need to cost effectively serve larger numbers of students, providing opportunities for students to flexibly apply their statistical knowledge, using computing as a window to core statistical concepts, supporting students with varying levels of preparation, attracting students from underrepresented groups and fostering a desire for advanced course work.  Agenda, Abstracts, Presenters: George Cobb (Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Mount Holyoke College) and Lisa Harlow (Ph.D. Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Rhode Island). You-tube Inquiry-Based Statistics Education videos   Contact: Lisa Dierker, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Quantitative Analysis Center.

  • 2011 July 30 - Aug 4.  Joint Statistical Meeting of the American Statistical Association (Miami, FL). Program
    Sun 4:50
      Detecting Confounding and Evaluating the 10% Rule: R. Bliss, J. Weinberg, V. Vieira and T. Webster
    Sun 4:50  A First Time [Graduate] Course in Modern Causal Inference — Eiliana Montero, University of Costa Rica 

    Mon 7:10 Roundtable 
    ML08 One-page Tutorials [on statistical methods/topics] Promoting Statistical Literacy -- Becki Bartelson, Sec on Health Sci.
    Mon 10:30-12:00 Contributed Session (#182. CC-B217):
    Teaching Statistics Using News Media, T. Paulette Ceesay; Describing Quantitative Relationships Using Informal Grammar, Milo Schield 6up 1up  WB1  WB2
    Mon 2:00-3:50  Statistical Literacy 2011 session (#222. CC-A108/109)
    : Pop-stats books and Statistical Education - Kaiser Fung, New York Univ. 1up Integrating Quantitative and Financial Literacy - Joe Ganem, Loyola Univ., Maryland. 6up Statistics and Clinical Trials: Past, Present and Future - Herb Weisberg, Correlation Research 1up Learning to Read the Numbers: Critical Literacy and Numeracy in K-8 Classrooms - David and Phyllis Whitin, Wayne State U. 1up Assessing Quantitative Reasoning: What Do Freshmen Know? - Ermine Faith Orta, Nandini Kannan and Kimberly Massaro, Univ Texas San Antonio 6up.  Milo Schield, organizer and chair.
    Mon 2:00-3:50 Causal Diagrams and Causal Inference External Validity and Transportability: A Formal Approach — Judea Pearl, and Elias Bareinboim UCLA. Alternative Graphical Causal Models and the Identification of Direct Effects — Thomas S. Richardson, Univ. Washington ; James M. Robins, Harvard School of Public Health.
    Mon 3:05 Making Data Talk: Communicating Health Data with Lay Audiences by David E. Nelson, Brad Hesse and Harry T. Kwon

    Tues 7:00-8:15 Roundtable (268, TL07.  CC-JR Ballroom D): Teach Statistical Literacy with Epidemiology! — Daniel T Kaplan, Macalester College
    Tues 8:30-10:20 Outstanding Innovations in Statistics Education: Past, Present and a Glimpse at the Future — Invited Panel Organizer: Amy G Froelich, Iowa State University. Chair: Nicholas Jon Horton, Smith College.  Panelists: Amy G Froelich, Iowa State University Roger Woodard, North Carolina State University Jo Hardin, Pomona College.  Discussant: Beth Chance, California Polytechnic State University
    Tues 10:30 - 12:20 International Statistical Literacy Session (#321. CC-B218)
    :  Improving statistical literacy by international cooperation, Organizer Reija Helenius, Director of ISLP. Chair: Sonya Vartivarian, Government Accountability Office.   Strategies for Stimulating Statistical Literacy and Understanding Quantitative Evidence in Higher Education in the UK — Gillian Lancaster, Lancaster University.  Mary Townsend (Statistics Canada) 11:25 Statistical Literacy and the Common Core Curriculum in the United States by Roxy Peck, California Polytechnic at San Louis Obispo. 6up 1up.   Discussant: Milo Schield, W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project, Augsburg College.
    Tues 10:30-12:30  Invited panel.  Teaching Statistics through Regression Daniel Kaplan Organizer and Chair.  Panelists: Felicity Enders, Mayo Clinic; Shonda Kuiper, Dept. of Math and Statistics; Daniel T Kaplan, Macalester College; Laura Sather Zielgler, Dept. of Statistics.
    Tues  Conceptualizing and Measuring "Data Habit-Of-Mind": Saad Chahine, OISE/university of Toronto.
    Tues 1:30-3:00.
      Business Meeting of Statistics in Business Schools Interest Group in (HQ-Lucina).  1. Ratify constitution 2. Election of officers 3. Program for JSM 2012 4. Details of the MSMESB program at the Decision Sciences meetings (Boston in November).
    Tues 2:35 A Comparison of Students' Inferential Reasoning in Three College Courses Sharon Lane-Getaz, Saint Olaf College
    Tues 3:05 Assessing the Change in Student Attitudes towards Statistics at the University of Tennessee Ramon Leon and Adam Petrie.

    Wed 7:00-8:15 Roundtable 
    Information Criteria, Bayesian Methods and their Implications for Statistical Literacy: Rochelle E. Tractenberg Georgetown Univ. Medical Center
    Wed 8:30-10:20 Late breaking session. US Supreme Court "Statistical significance is not necessary for causation" (438. CC-JR Ballroom AB)  Speakers: Stephen T. Ziliak 1up, Joseph "Jay" Kadane, Donald Rubin and Daniel Kaplan 1up.  Organizer and chair: Milo Schield 6up  1up
    Wed 8:30-10:20 Invited Session: Statistics - the secret weapon of successful web giants.
    8:35 AM Conditional Regression Models — William D Heavlin, Google; 9:00 AM The Effectiveness of Display Ads — Tim Hesterberg, Diane Lambert, David X. Chan, Or Gershony and Rong Ge, Google;  
    Wed 8:30-10:20 Preparing Students for the Future of Analytics   Organizer-Chair: Michael Rappa, Institute for Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University  Panelists: Aric LaBarr, Institute for Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University; Russell Zaretzki, The University of Tennessee Knoxville; Jerry Oglesby, SAS; Dan Thorpe, Sam's Club.
    Wed 10:30-12:20 Poster 47.  Remediating Misconceptions of Confidence Intervals using Simulations and Visualizations — Chong Ho Yu, Arizona State University ; Samuel DiGangi, Arizona State University ; Angel Jannasch-Pennell, Arizona State University
    Wed 10:30-12:20 Poster 52: Zebras vs. Hats: Exploiting the Lexical Ambiguity of the Word Random — Neal T. Rogness, Grand Valley State University; Diane G. Fisher, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Jennifer J Kaplan, Dept. of Statistics and Probability
    Wed 12:30-1:50 Roundtable General Social Survey (GSS)-- Studying Societal Change. Survey Research Methods  Tom Smith
    Wed 2:05
    Causal Mediation Analysis for Nonlinear Models with Confounding: Jeffrey M. Albert, Case Western Reserve University
    Wed 3:05
    Gaining Inzight - Chris J. Wild and Dineika Chandrananda University of Auckland
    Wed 6:00  Statistical Education Business Meeting

    Thurs 10:30  Significance Magazine: Communicating Statistics to the World — Invited Panel.  Howard Wainer, National Board of Medical Examiners Andrew Solow, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ian MacDonald, Florida State University.  Organizer: Julian G. Champkin, RSS.  Chair: Ron Wasserstein, ASA. 

  • 2011: July 15.  Supporting the Royal Statistical Society's ten-year statistical literacy campaign. "The aim of fostering improved science and number literacy in the journalism community is shared by a number of organisations and people and the campaign is making progress." 

  • 2011 July 15 Deadline for uploading ASA awareness YouTube videos. A contest for short films about statistics and statisticians. The competition is intended to stimulate public awareness of the many facets of statistics and life as a statistician.  Each entry will be judged on two equally weighted criteria: quality of statistical content and entertainment value. 

  • 2011 July 5.  Making Data Meaningful: Guide to Statistical Literacy by Vadim Isakov UNECE. 6upDocument-Part 4

  • 2011 July 1:  Twenty-First-Century Quantitative Education: Beyond Content by Shannon Dingman and Bernard Madison, University of Arkansas. In the AAC&U's Peer Review Summer 2011, Vol. 13, No. 3. "Traditional high school and nonmajor mathematics courses generally focus on calculation and manipulation of mathematical representations (functions, equations, expressions). Of course, this is still important, and regardless of the fact that much of this can be done by technology, understanding how it is done remains important. However, QR education (and many other learning outcomes) requires that we broaden teaching to include competencies such as interpretation of information and data, developing and evaluating assumptions, conducting analysis and synthesis of solutions to make sound judgments and conclusions, and communicating one’s thoughts in an organized and coherent manner." Copy

  • 2011 June 30.  Blejec, North and Schield elected ISI membersThe International Statistical Institute (ISI) elected 56 new members. Three are members of the International Association of Statistical Educators (IASE).  Andre Blejec (Ljubljana, Slovenia) organized the 2010 ICOTS in Ljubljana.  Delia North (Durban, South Africa) was the local chair of ICOTS6 which was held in Cape Town in 2002.  Milo Schield (Minneapolis, USA) has organized sessions and given contributed and invited papers at numerous IASE, ISI and ICOTS conferences.  According to the ISI office (as of July), there are "1980 elected ISI members, of which 164 have an IASE membership. Of the 164, 27 have US Nationalities and of the same 164, 30 have US as country of residence."

  • 2011 June 26-29.  18th International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM-18).  Dublin Ireland. ALM  

  • 2011 June 22.  The Spread of Evidence-Poor Medicine via Flawed Social-Network Analysis by Russell Lyons, Indiana University. Numeracy 2011 Volume 2 Issue 1.  "How did these errors arise and pass inspection? We believe that one major reason is that, as many before us have said, statistical assumptions are routinely made when they are unlikely to hold. The motivation for making assumptions is the hope of overcoming the limitations of observational data, especially for causal inference. In any particular case, some of those limitations are known, while others are unknown. Yet viewing observational data through the lens of statistical modeling produces new biases, generally unknown and mostly unacknowledged, lurking in mathematical thickets. Unfortunately, controlling for selection effects and other confounders is extraordinarily difficult in observational studies (Ioannidis, 2005a); this is the main reason that observational studies are regarded with skepticism. Indeed, as demonstrated with the well-known studies concerning hormone-replacement therapy, it was impossible to control the observational studies to get the same effects as the experiments (Petitti and Freedman, 2005, Freedman and Petitti, 2005). Observational studies often lead to publications whose causal conclusions contradict one another or are contradicted by experiments (Ioannidis, 2005a, Maziak, 2009, Taubes, 1995); this is a natural consequence of poor methodology." 
    "Indeed, an obvious “cure” for poor statistical practice is to improve statistics education. While there is widespread agreement on the need for statistical literacy among the populace at large, efforts to improve the statistical competence of those who become practitioners receive less attention."
    "We see the problems with existing statistics education as follows. Although most statistics courses mention the importance of the assumptions behind the techniques they present, few devote much time to this topic. Such lack of attention is especially prevalent in more advanced courses taught in a variety of disciplines, yet the assumptions behind more advanced techniques are considerably more subtle than those in elementary courses. Most students, who are generally practically minded, learn not to question whether the assumptions hold in practical situations— or, at least, students do not learn to question the assumptions. Many such students later become practitioners and, often, educators themselves: more statistics is taught outside statistics departments than within. In the face of academic pressure to publish papers, assumptions become inconvenient and further marginalized, even though all assent to their importance."
    "An examination of statistics education, as Duncan suggested, is overdue. Educators need not wait for any report, however, before we ourselves teach critical thinking." [Emphasis added here].

  • 2011 June 7.  SJIAOS: Statistical Literacy and Official Statistics.  (SJIAOS) 27 (2011) Table of Contents. Editorial by S-M. Tam p 95-98; How statistical literacy, official statistics and self-directed learning shaped social enquiry in the 19th and early 20th centuries by Gillian A. Lancaster p 99-112. Official Statistics and statistical literacy: They need each other by Sharleen Forbes, Mike Camden, Nathaniel Pihama, Paul Bucknall and Maxine Pfannkuch p 113-128. The national statistical agency as educator by Mary Townsend p 129-136.   Statistical literacy and awareness as strategic success factors of a national statistical office – the case of Statistics Finland by Reija Helenius and Heli Mikkelä p 137-144. Creating statistically literate global citizens: The use of IPUMS-International integrated census microdata in teaching by Ann Meier, Robert McCaa and David Lam p 145-156. The millennium development goals, national statistical offices, the international statistical literacy project and statistical literacy in schools by Juana Sanchez, Sharleen Forbes, Pedro Campos, Paola Giacche, Mary Townsend, Gai Mooney and Reija Helenius p 157-172. Statistical Literacy: A New Mission for Data Producers by Milo Schield,  p 173-183. Responding to diversity in users' statistical literacy and information needs: Institutional and educational implications by Iddo Gal and Scott T. Murray p 185-196. Foundations for improving statistical literacy by Jane M. Watson p 197-204.  Developments of AtSchool projects for improving collaborative teaching and learning in statistics by Neville Davies p 205-228.  Does CensusAtSchool develop statistical literacy? by Iddo Gal 229-230. Discussion by Chris Wild p 231-234. Rejoinder to Wild and Gal's comments by Neville Davies p 235-326.

  • 2011 May 19-21.  USCOTS 2011: The Next Big Thing. Program Plenary speakers: Allan Rossman & Beth Chance, Robert Gould, Dennis Pearl, Wayne Stewart and Robert delMas.  Talk: Roxy Peck "What is the Next Big Thing and Will We be Ready for It?"  StatLit Posters: Marc Isaacson Poster "Where Do Statistics Come From? - Setting the Table for Introductory Statistics".   Milo Schield and Daniel Kaplan Poster "Modeling in Context: Teaching Confounding and Adjustment through the Common Core Standards".    StatLit Teaching-Theater (Seven minute teaching activities): Marc Isaacson 6up Multiple-Choice Olympics.    Milo Schield 6up Hypothetical Thinking about Statistics.  Location: Embassy Suites Hotel in Raleigh-Durham (Research Triangle) North Carolina.

  • 2011 May 16 - July 1. Statistical Literacy Course 100% Online. Augsburg College GST 200. Syllabus  Summer Session Details  Registration opens April 18.  2010 Summer Registration form. For non-students to register, fax the completed registration form to 612-330-1425 Attention Linda.  Allow 2 business days for processing your registration.  To make payment using a credit card, contact Cory Snyder: 612-330-1037.   Late fee for registration or payment received after May 16.

  • 2011 May 12-15. 60th Annual Conference American Association for Public Opinion Research. Phoenix AZ.

  • 2011 May 10: ASA supports Statistics Teaching, Aptitude and Training (STAT) Act of 2011“The ASA commends Congressman Loebsack for his leadership in promoting statistical literacy,” said Robert Rodriguez, ASA president-elect. “K-12 statistics education is essential for equipping students with the workforce skills and critical thinking necessary in our data-driven society.”

  • 2011 May 10: Statistics Teaching, Aptitude and Training (STAT) Act of 2011 introduced  by Congressman Loesback.  "To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide for the development of State statistical literacy plans and to authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants for statistics-related teacher professional development and the improvement of statistics education." P. 2  "The Congress finds the following: (1) Statistical literacy, the understanding and use of the language and tools of statistics, is vital for United States citizens in an era of intense global competition and growing reliance on data..."    Excerpt
    P. 29: "the term ‘statistical literacy’ means the understanding of and ability to use the language and tools of statistics, including the ability to— (1) ask and evaluate critical questions about the design of a study and the appropriateness of the conclusions drawn from a study; (2) distinguish arguments based on data and evidence from arguments based on anecdotes; (3) recognize and interpret different representations of data in context; and (4) formulate questions that can be addressed with data, collect and organize relevant data, and draw appropriate statistical conclusions."   Organizations supporting STAT Act. "Statistical literacy especially enhances the reasoning skills so critical to everyday decisions because it takes into account uncertainty. Statistical literacy is also the ability to read, understand, and use quantitative information."  "being statistically literate means being armed with the skills necessary to understand and interpret data and weigh risks and rewards to make decisions in the presence of uncertainty."

  • 2011 May 10: Odysseys anonymous web forum.  Poster by Milo Schield and Larry Copes

  • 2011 April 28: ASA accepts proposal for late-breaking session: US Supreme Court -- "Statistical significance is not a necessary condition..."  Scheduled: Wed 8:30 AM Aug 2. Panelists: Stephen Ziliak, Joseph Kadane, Donald Rubin and Daniel Kaplan.  Organizer: Milo Schield.

  • 2011 April 12. "Eat Less Salt, Drink More Wine, Dump The Cell phone, Eat More Salt, And Live Longer: Teaching Students To Understand The Role Of Data Collection In Statistical Inference."  Rob Gould, UCLA 2:00 to 2:30 pm Eastern time. "The role that data collection plays in causal inference is of fundamental importance in introductory statistics, and yet is outside the comfort zone for many of us. In this webinar, I'll discuss why causal inference is important and also fun, and give some advice for teaching this topic."

  • 2011 April 1.  Statway and Quantway: Mathematics Pathways to Student Success in Community Colleges.  "A one hour discussion online. Carnegie and its partners are addressing the low success rate of developmental mathematics students by providing alternatives to the current community college mathematical sequence and content. The Statistics Pathway (Statway) is designed to take developmental math students to and through transferable college statistics in one year. Quantway provides an alternate and accelerated pathway with an innovative quantitative literacy focus in which students use mathematics and numerical reasoning to make sense of the world around them."  Dana Center Pathways: Statway and QuantwayWhat is QL?

  • 2011 March 25. Applications due, Director of Quantitative Learning Program and Center, Bryn Mawr College

  • 2011 March 19.  NECQL, Northeast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy, 15th Annual Meeting. Univ of Massachusetts Boston.   Featured speaker: Deb Hughes-Hallet, Univ. of Arizona.

  • 2011 March 7.  Lexical Ambiguity in Statistics: The Cases of Random and Spread.  Iowa Stat Univ. 4:10-5:00 pm, Snedecor 3105. Speaker: Jennifer J. Kaplan, Michigan State U. 

  • Feb 25: ‘The Data Generation’, a statistical literacy workshop at the RSS headquarters, London. "Hello, the Young Statisticians Section of the Royal Statistical Society would like to bring [this] workshop to your attention.  Organised by the Young Statisticians Section of the RSS, this event is designed to present ongoing efforts to promote statistical thinking and to increase the comfort level in talking and using statistics. A range of speakers, keen to relay the importance of statistical literacy in the current era, will provide insight into the Voice of Young Science, Sense About Statistics and the getstats campaigns. David Spiegelhalter [Understanding Uncertainty] will share his life-long experience in interacting with the public, the media and politicians and the event will round off with a workshop on engaging with the media by Andrew Garratt [Media officer] from the Royal Statistical Society."

  • Feb 23-35.  Welcome to the 2011 Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians (WISLL). "This Institute provides training in the strategies and tools for finding statistics and providing them in formats directly useful to users."  "of interest to reference librarians working in academic, public and special libraries that serve user communities with interests in statistical information" "Participants will work with a variety of online official and non-official statistical sources and with the tools for finding and retrieving them. This workshop will not provide instruction about how to do data analysis, nor will it provide assessment training" University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. 

  • 2011: Education Vision: Royal Statistical Society.  "Our vision is that 'statistical literacy' should be seen within society as being a vital life skill."

  • 2011: Jan 6 - 9.  Joint Mathematical Meeting, MAA-AMS New Orleans. Program.
    Wed. 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Workshop on Statistics Teaching introductory statistics following GAISE and the Common Core. Robert Gould.

    Thurs 8:00 am An Action Research Report: <snip> Chance that a Student will make an "Innumeracy Type" Statistical Error? Larry Lewis.
    10:20 am An analysis of student understanding of voting power in a a quantitative literacy class. Curtis D. Bennett et al.
    2:55  pm Serve While You Learn: A Quantitative Literacy Course. Karen Stanish.
    5:30-6 pm  SIGMAA-QL Business Meeting La Galerie 6, 2nd Floor, Marriott
    6-7 pm SIGMAA-QL.  Reception, Panel Discussion La Galerie 6, 2nd Fl, Marriott Mathematics and democracy ten years later. Schield 6up

    Friday 8:00 am. Confounding the Traditional Introductory Statistics Course. Daniel T Kaplan.
    8:40 am. Teaching Statistical Literacy Using Odysseys2Sense: a Unique Web-Based Forum. Milo Schield. Abstract 6up  Odysseys poster
    10:30 am-12:30 pm. MAA Minicourse: #5: Part A A Game Theory path to quantitative literacy. David L. Housman and Richard Gillman.
    1:00 - 3:00 pm. MAA Minicourse #10: Part A Teaching introductory statistics: Michael A. Posner and Carolyn K. Cuff.
    1-2:20 pm. Report from ICOTS: A world view of statistics education.  Panelists: Rob Carver, Katherine Halvorsen 6up, John McKenzie, Milo Schield 6up, and Gail Burrill.

1:00 pm. Mathematical Literacy and Quantitative Literacy: Symbiosis or Competition? Deborah Hughes Hallett. 
1:20 pm. Quantitative Reasoning and Students' Approaches to Solving Novel Problems. Kevin C. Moore.
1:30 pm. Reorganizing School Mathematics for Quantitative Literacy. Rick Gillman. 
2:00 pm. Quantitative Reasoning in the Contemporary World. Caren Diefenderfer, Bernard Madison, Stuart Boersma & Shannon Dingman.
2:00 pm. QL and the "Big Ideas" of High School Mathematics. Brian Beaudrie, Emily Ricard, Greg Superchi and David Gilcreast. 
2:30 pm. Quantitative Literacy and College Readiness. Cathy L Seeley.
3:00 pm. The Role of QL in the High School Mathematics Curriculum: What Students Need to Know to Be College Ready. Corri Taylor.
3:30 pm. The Role of QL in the High School Mathematics Curriculum Panel Discussion. Eric C Gaze.
Friday 5:45 -7:15 pm. SIGMAA Statistics Education Business Meeting and Reception La Galerie 6, 2nd Floor, Marriott

Saturday 1-2:20 pm. Teaching statistics online. Panel: Michelle Everson,Patricia Humphrey, Michael Miner and Sue Schou.

1:00 pm. The war on apathy in a terminal statistics course: Motivating definitions from day one. Gregory Johnson & Christopher Shaw.

Sunday 1-5:30. MAA Session: Alternative Approaches to Traditional Introductory Statistics Courses. Organized Gill, Boynton and Posner
1:00 pm. Two-way tables: A path less traveled. Melinda Miller Holt and Stephen M. Scariano, Sam Houston State University.
1:00 pm. Not your mother's college algebra course -- rethinking how we prepare students for QR across the disciplines. Suzanne Doree.
2:00 pm. A different flavor of introductory statistics: Teaching students to really cook. Robert delMas et al. 
3:20 pm. Faculty and Student Support for Quantitative Reasoning and How to Make it Count. David G Taylor, Roanoke College.
1:00 -3:00 p.m. MAA Minicourse: #5: Part B A Game Theory path to quantitative literacy. David L. Housman and Richard A. Gillman.
3:30 -5:30 p.m. MAA Minicourse #10: Part B Teaching introductory statistics. Michael A. Posner and Carolyn K. Cuff.

Amazon Best Selling Books in Statistics

Most Popular NEW Books in Statistics

Popularity: Advanced Search: Subject = Science: Keyword = Statistics. Published during 2011.  Excludes new editions, Kindle editions and non-books: game cards, calendars, Cliff notes, coloring books, GRE workbooks.
#1 The Theory That Would Not Die: [Bayes' Rule] by Sharon B. McGrayne
#2 The Upside of Irrationality: Benefits of Defying Logic by Dan Ariely
#3 Scale Development: Theory and Applications by Robert F. DeVellis
#4 Algorithmic Puzzles by Anany Levitin and Maria Levitin
#5 Statistical Analysis: Microsoft Excel 2010 [Paperback] Conrad Carlberg
#6 Statistics book Your Professor Doesn't Want You to Have S. Deviant
#7 Elementary Decision Theory by Herman Chernoff and Lincoln E. Moses
#8 Statistics for Spatio-Temporal Data  by Noel Cressie and C.K. Wikle
#9 Precision: Statistical-Mathematic Methods in Horse Racing. CX Wong
10 Statistical Abstract of the US, 2011-2012: by U.S. Dept Commerce
11 Futurecast: What Today's Trends Mean for Tomorrow's World. G Barna
12 Economic Indicators For Dummies by Michael Griffis
13 Understanding The New Statistics: Effect Sizes, etc. Geoff Cumming
14 Social Network Analysis: History, Theory and Methodology by C. Prell
15 Bayesian Population Analysis w WinBUGS by Marc Kery and M. Schaub
16 Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences by Gregory J. Privitera
17 Thinking Statistically by Uri Bram
18 Structural Equation Modeling with Mplus by Barbara M. Byrne
19 Uneducated Guesses: Uncover Misguided Education Policies. H Wainer
20 Econometrics by Example by Damodar N. Gujarati

Most Popular books: Professional-Statistics

Popularity: Advanced Search: Science-Math, Keyword = Statistics.
Note: Ignores Kindle-only books, Kindle editions, free Creative Commmons (CK-12) books and required "books" (c.f., My MathLab - Student Access).
#1 Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
#2 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. APA
#3 Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences  by T Moskowitz and J. Wertheim
#4 The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Nassim Taleb
#5 Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
#6 The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed. by Tufte. 
#7 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
#8 Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative & Mixed Methods, Creswell
#9 Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability with Solutions by F. Mosteller
10 Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte.
11 The Visual Miscellaneum: Most Consequential Trivia by D McCandless
12 Understanding a Wager by Ramy Tadros
13 Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks by G. Patrick Vennebush
14 How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff and Irving Geis
15 Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick, Woollcott Smith. 
16 A Monetary History of the US, 1867-1960 by Friedman and Schwartz
17 Capitalism Hits the Fan: by Richard D. Wolff
18 Elementary Statistics (11th Edition) by Mario F. Triola
19 The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by J. Sachs
20 Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field.

Amazon Best Selling Books in Statistics and Math

Most Popular Books: Science-Statistics

Popularity: Advanced Search: Science-Math, Keyword = Statistics.
Note: Ignores Kindle-only books, Kindle editions, free Creative Commmons (CK-12) books and required "books" (c.f., My MathLab - Student Access).
#1 Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
#2 The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed. by Tufte. 
#3 Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative & Mixed Methods Creswell
#4 Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability with Solutions by F. Mosteller
#5 Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte.
#6 How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff and Irving Geis. 
#7 Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick, Woollcott Smith. 
#8 The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.  L. Mlodinow
#9 Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field.
10. Barron's AP Statistics by Martin Sternstein
11. The Theory That Would Not Die: [Bayes' Rule] by S. McGrayne
12. What is a p-value anyway? 34 Stories ...  by Andrew Vickers
13. How to Measure Anything: Valuing Intangibles in Business, Hubbard
14. Probabilistic Graphical Models: Principles/Techniques. Koller+Friedman
15. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance by Nassim Taleb. 
16. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein
17. Visual Explanations: Images-Quantities, Evidence-Narrative. E Tufte
18. The Basic Practice of Statistics: w/Student CD by David S. Moore
19. Epidemiology: by Leon Gordis
20. Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence ... by Kaiser Fung

Most Popular Books: Mathematics

Amazon bestsellers in Science&Math>Math> Top 20: Excludes Kindle editions and non-books: game cards, calendars, Cliff notes, coloring books, GRE workbooks.
#1 Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
#2 Magical Mathematics: Mathematical Ideas by P. Diaconis, R. Graham
#3 My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles by Martin Gardner
#4 Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by D. R. Hofstadter
#5. Secrets of Mental Math: Mathemagician's Guide, Benjamin & Shermer
#6 The Big Book of Brain Games by Ivan Moscovich, Ian Stewart.
#7 The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. L. Mlodinow
#8 The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed.,  by Tufte
#9 Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte.
10 Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability with Solutions by F. Mosteller
11 Brain Teasers: 211 Logic Puzzles, etc. by Ian Livingstone, J. Thomson
12 Freakonomics (and Other Riddles of Modern Life) Levitt, Dubner [HC]
13 Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative & Mixed Methods, Creswell
14 Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Math by W. Dunham
15 Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field
16 Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks by G. Patrick Vennebush
17 Algebra Survival Guide  by Josh Rappaport, Sally Blakemore
18 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
19 Quantitative Analysis for Mgmt (10th Ed) by Render, Stair amd Hanna
20. Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles by Martin Gardner

REFERENCE BOOKS

Philosophy of Statistics

Philosophy of Statistics, Volume 7 (Handbook of the Philosophy of Science) Bandyopadhyay and Foster, editors. The essays in this Handbook are concerned with problems of induction, statistics and probability. Provides a bridge between philosophy and current scientific findings.  Covers theory and applications.  Encourages multi-disciplinary dialogue.   $165.

StatProb: Encyclopedia

StatProb: The Encyclopedia, sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies, combines the advantages of traditional wikis (rapid and up-to-date publication, user-generated development, hyperlinking, and a saved history) with traditional publishing (quality assurance, review, credit to authors, and a structured information display). All contributions have been approved by an editorial board. First online: Oct 2010.  As of Dec 2011: 57 published entries total. 165 published concepts total.

AMAZON RANKINGS: STATISTICS TEXTBOOKS

Amazon.com US sales ranks in books as of Dec 10, 2011.  Sales-ranks:  100 sales/wk=4,000th; 60 /wk=10,000; 10/wk=100K; 1/wk=400K.

These rankings fluctuate daily and don't include sales made directly by publishers to bookstores.  Rankings via www.salesrankexpress.com

Rank   Author: Title  

6,437  Field: Discovering Statistics Using SPSS   3rd

7,778  Gonick and Smith: Cartoon Guide to Statistics  1st

9,456  Triola: Elementary Statistics 11th

10,959  Rumsey:  Statistics for Dummies I  2nd

16,328  Moore: The Basic Practice of Statistics 5th

17,698  Salkind: Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics 4

20,819  Gravetter  et al: Essentials of Statistics Behavioral Sciences 7th

21,091  Rumsey: Statistics for Dummies II  1st

24,483  Larson and Farber: Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World 4th

24,594  Bluman: Elementary Statistics: A Brief Version 5th

25.073  Hinders: 5 Steps to a 5 AP Statistics 2012-2013

26,389  Sullivan: Fundamentals of Statistics 3rd

27,615  Triola: Essentials of Statistics 4th

28,959  Bennett-Briggs: Using & Understand Math: QR Approach  5th

31,209  Donnelly: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics 2nd

33,212  Urdan: Statistics in Plain English 3rd

33,908  Wackerly, Mendenhall and Scheaffer. Mathematical Statistics 7th

33,964  Brussee  Statistics for Six Sigma Made Easy 1st

34,375  Agresti, Franklin: Statistics: Art/Science Learning from Data 2nd

34,901  Tabachnick and Fidell. Using Multivariate Statistics 5th

36,316  Larson and Farber: Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World 5th

39,154  Levine et al., Statistics for Managers using Excel 6th

39,305  Sullivan:  Statistics: Informed Decisions Using Data 3rd

40,945  Bluman: Elementary Statistics: A Step By Step Approach  7th

43,424  Timothy  Urdan: Statistics in Plain English 3rd

46,157  Moore, McCabe, Craig: Introduction to Practice of Statistics 6th

49,214  Moore and Notz: Concepts and Controversies 7th

50,814  Freedman, Pisani and Purves: Statistics  4th

58,769  COMAP: For All Practical Purposes: Mathematical Literacy ...  8th

65,591  Bennett et al., Statistical Reasoning For Everyday Life 3

67,826  McClave, Sincich and Mendenhall: Statistics 11th

77,272  Howell: Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences 7th

80.902  Brase and Brase: Understandable Statistics 9th

83,867  Miller, Heeren and Hornsby: Mathematical Ideas 12th

84,932  McClave and Benson: Statistics for Business Economics 11th

85,757  Miller, Heeren and Hornsby: Mathematical Ideas 11th

90,389  Nolan and Heinzen: Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences 1st

91.736  Brase and Brase: Understandable Statistics 10th ed.

92,421  Utts: Seeing Through Statistics (3rd)  NovelRank

93,886  Agresti & Finlay: Statistical Methods for Social Sciences 4th

95,713  Voelker, Orton and Adams: Statistics (Cliffs Quick Review) (1st)

96,597  Hand:  Statistics -- A Very Short Introduction

97,204  Moore, McCabe et al The Practice of Business Statistics 2nd

113,984  Witte and Witte: Statistics 9th

129,884  Moore et al The Practice of Statistics for Business/Econ 3rd

143,507  Burger and Starbird: Heart of Mathematics (3rd)

195,988  Sprinthall: Basic Statistical Analysis 8th

234,075  Pearson: Statistical Persuasion:..Collect, Analyze, Present Data

298,672  Johnson: Statistics: Principles and Methods 6th

300,030  Woloshin et al. Know Your Chances: Understand Health Stat

300,156  Sevilla and Somers: QR: Tools for Today's Citizen  1st

322,331  Utts and Heckard: Mind on Statistics 3rd 770p.

353,666  Rossman, Chance: Investigating Statistical Concepts ... 1st

430,814  Rossman et al Workshop Statistics with Data & Graph Calculator

451,274  Utts and Heckard: Statistical Ideas and Methods 1st

464,814  Rossman-Chance: Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data

523,659  Kiess, Green: Statistical Concepts for Behavioral Sciences 4th

768,716  Langkamp and Hull: QR and the Environment 1st

836,137  Bennett, Briggs: Essentials of Using and Understanding Math

894,235  Greenleaf: Quantitative Reasoning: Understand Nature 2nd

944,741  Aufmann and Lockwood: Mathematical Thinking and QR (1st)

1,290,838  Madison et al., Case Studies for QR: Media Articles 2nd.

1,465,983  Bennett and Briggs: Themes of the Times on QL 4th

1,844,508  Fusaro, Kenschaft: Environmental Math in the Classroom 1st

2,019,882  Jeffrey Bennett:  Math for Life  1st

2,165,582  Sons: Mathematical Thinking & Quantitative Reasoning 4th

2,337,671  Abramson and Isom: Literacy and Mathematics 1st

2,839,721  Richman et al: Mathematics for Liberal Arts

2,912,304  Pierce, Wright, Roland: Mathematics for Life: ... QL

6,838,550  Burkhart: Quantitative and Qualitative Reasoning Skills

 

****** Andersen, Swanson: Understanding our Quantitative World

Not ranked:  Common Sense: Rethinking QR

No rank Levine and Stephan.  Even You can Learn Statistics  2nd ed.

Top 25 Statistical Literacy Papers: Ranked by Citations

Data from Google Scholar (Dec., 2011).  Search on "Statistical Literacy," all areas, exclude patents, summaries only.

Rank Citations Description
1 265 I. Gall (2002).  Adults' statistical literacy: Meanings, components, responsibilities. International Statistical Review.
2 126 JM Watson (1997). Assessing statistical thinking using the media.  In The Assessment challenge in Statistics Education.
3 119 J Garfield (2002).  The challenge of developing statistical reasoning.  Journal of Statistics Education.
4 111 B Chance (2002).  Components of statistical thinking; implications for instruction and assessment.  Journal of Statistics Education.
5 107 JB Garfield (2003).  Assessing statistical reasoning.  Statistics Education Research Journal.
6 106 KK Walman (1993).  Enhancing statistical literacy: Enriching our society.  Journal of the American Statistical Association.
7 100 J Watson, R Callingham (2003).  Statistical literacy: A complex hierarchical construct.  Statistics Education Research Journal.
8 86 DJ Rumsey (2002).  Statistical literacy as a goal for introductory statistics courses.   Journal of Statistics Education. 
9 71 Watson, Kelly, Callingham (2003).  Measurement of school students' understanding of statistical variation.  Education in Science. 
10 66 D Ben-Zvi, et al. (2004).   The challenge of developing statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking. [book]
11 56 D. Ben-Zvi (2004).  Statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking: Goals, definitions, and challenges.  See 2004 book
12 45 S Lajoie (1998).  Reflections on statistics: Learning, teaching, and assessment in grades K-12.  Book
13 39 JM Watson, JB Moritz (2000).  Development of understanding of sampling for statistical literacy.  Journal of Mathematical Behavior
14 36 I Gal (2005).  Statistical literacy.  The Challenge of developing statistical literacy
15 33 J Garfield (2005).  Research on statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking....  The challenge of developing statistical literacy
16 32 J Garfield (2005).  A framework for teaching and assessing reasoning about variablity.  Statistics Education Research Journal.
17 31 J Waton (2005).  Developing reasoning about samples.  The challenge of developing statistical literacy.
18 30 S. Murray (2002). Preparing for diversity in statistics literacy: Institutional-educational implications. Sixth International Conference.
19 27 I Gal (2003).  Teaching for statistical literacy and services of statistics agencies.  The American Statistician,
20 24 M. Schield (2004).   Statistical literacy curriculum design.   IASE Curriculum Design Roundtable.
20 24 JL Snell (1992).   A course called chance.  Chance
22 23 M. Schield (1999).  Statistical literacy: Thinking critically about statistics.  Of Significance
22 23 I. Gall (2002).  Statistical literacy: Conceptual and instructional issues.  Perspectives on adults learning mathematics
24 22 R. Callingham, J. Watson (2005).  Measuring statistical literacy.  Journal of Applied Measurement
24 22 I Gal (1995).  Teaching Statistics.

TOP STATLIT-SITE PAPERS

Papers downloaded from www.StatLit.org in 2011.

Total downloads: (198,000 in 2011, 207,000 in 2010, 184,000 in 2009; 106,000 in 2008).  Counts in parenthesis are  (2011; 2010; 2009; 2008).
2011: The StatLit website hosts 811 pdfs including 198 pdfs of slides.

  1. Percentage Graphs in USA Today. Milo Schield 2006 ASA (19114; 10664; 13253; 14247; 8809).  Inception to date: 67,077.

  2. The Cult of Statistical Significance by Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey  2009 ASA 6up 4up (3160 3972; 999)

  3. Importance and Measurement of Pre-Service Teachers' Efficacy to Teach Statistics...    2009 ASA Harrell et al. (1753[11]; 2506)

  4. Statistical Literacy: A New Mission for Data Producers.  Milo Schield 2011 SJIAOS (1723) [New in 2011]

  5. Interpreting the substantive significance of multivariate regression coefficients by Jane Miller 2008 ASA (1625[11]; 2094; 1412)

  6. Statistics for Political Science Majors. Gary Klass 2004 ASA (1389[10]; 596[6]; 765; 215)

  7. Presenting Confounding Graphically Using Standardization (1289; 2084; 1985; 1616). Milo Schield, 2006 Draft for Stats magazine

  8. Ambiguity Intolerance: An Impediment to Inferential Reasoning?  Robert Carver 2006 ASA (1220; 624[5]; 797)

  9. Teaching Statistical Literacy as Quantitative Rhetoric. ASA 2010 John Schmit 6up (1187[9]; 279[2]) [New in 2010]

  10. Some Difficulties Learning Histograms. Carl Lee & Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris ASA 2003 (1156[8]; 1792; 991; 1179)

  11. Exploring Simpson's Paradox. Larry Lesser (Univ. Texas, El Paso) NCTM 2001 (1143[9]; 2043[11]; 2844; 913)

Number of months tracked in brackets [#] if less than 12. 

  1. Assessing Students’ Attitudes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Anne Millar and Candace Schau  2010 ASA. (1068[7]) [New in 2010]

  2. The Components of Numeracy. Ginsburg, Manly & Schmitt 2006 NCSALL (975[7]; 1809[8]; 466; 235)

  3. Three Paradoxes. Howard Wainer and Lisa Brown, Nat. Board of Med. Examiners. Draft American Statistician 2004 (913[9]; 1084[10]; 315; 750)

  4. Social Mathematics in US Civics Curriculum. James Mauch dissertation 2005 (792[5]; 858[7]; 442; 470)

  5.  US Supreme Court Brief on Statistical Significance by Debra McCloskey and Stephen Ziliak  (700[5]) [New in 2011]

  6. Developing statistical literacy with students and teachers in the secondary mathematics classroom.  PhD Thesis. Doyle (597 [5]; 1811[9])

  7. Statistical Literacy Textbook: Introduction 2011 M Schield (577[4]; 1209[9])

  8. Teaching Statistical Literacy using Odyssey2Sense (TM): A Unique Web-Forum by Milo Schield  2011 MAA. 6up   Poster (558 [4]) [New in 2011]

  9. What do M&M's, Dahlias, soil erosion and data analysis across the curriculum have in common?.  Jerry Moreno 2006 ASA (547[4] ...)

  10. Just Plain Data Analysis: Common Statistical Fallacies.... Gary Klass (Illinois State University) 2008 ASA (502 [5]; 654[6]; 991; 499)

  11. People Count: The Social Construction of Statistics.  Joel Best 2002 Presented at ASA (467 [5]; 554[5]; 803; 1,087)

Excludes papers having less than 450 downloads. Excludes non-articles such as Amazon lists, PowerPoint slides, reference documents (UTSQ-QEP. Bracey principles, QR textbooks), pdf scans (1993 Weinberg) and non-statistical articles (Freeminds).

TOP STAT-LIT SITE-PAGES VIEWED

Top StatLit Pages Viewed at www.StatLit.org in 2011
(####; ####; ###; ###): page views in 2011, 2010; 2009; 2008.
  1. Welcome (28,157, 23,159; 15,729; 10,423):  Home Page

  2. Standardizing (5,176; 3,265; 2,434; 1,718): Excel displays.

  3. Joel Best (5,036; 4,794; 3,481; 3,118): Author

  4. Adult Numeracy (4,998, 5,007; 2,467; 1,987)

  5. StatLit Papers (4,203; 3,131; 2,837; 2,444): Scholarly articles.

  6. Howard Wainer (3,893; 2,778; 2,127; 1,966): Author.

  7. StatLit News 2009 (3,228; 4,869)

  8. Q/L Textbooks (3,159; 2,741; 2,484; 2,387)

  9. StatLit News 2008 (2,975; 3,333; 2,634)

  10. StatLit News 2010 (2,963)

  11. Gerd Gigerenzer (2,567; 1,993*; 1,415; 1,503): Author

  12. Gerald Bracey (2,374; 2,655; 2,669; 2,035): Author

  13. Q/L Books (2,305; 1,418; 1,459):  Q/L-related books (not texts).

  14. StatLit News 2007 (2,127; 2,552; 1,498; 1,928)

  15. Q/L Activities (2,106; 1,725*; 1,278; 1,378): Q/L-related activities.

  16. StatLit News 2004 (1,738; 1,929; 1,191; 1,183)

  17. John Paulos (1,737*; 1,845; 1,669): Author of "Numeracy".

  18. StatLit News 2006 (910*[7]; 1,386; 1,523)

Total page views (including /GC): (125,271, )

Page views as a percentage of Total:  Index (22%), Adult numeracy (4%), Joel Best (4%), Standardizing (4%), Articles (3%) and Howard Wainer (3%). All the rest were less except "Other" (22%).

New pages include Michael Blastland, John Brignell, David & Phyllis Whitin, and Jeffrey Bennet.

Note: Website statistics are tabulated by the DeepMatrix program LiveStats® .XSP V8.03. Each month, the views for the top 25 website pages are tabulated.  Those pages that aren't in the top 25 that month are treated as having zero views. 

* Pages with less than 12 months statistics are indicated by the asterisk (no adjustment). Pages with less than 9 months of statistics are omitted (except those that are student assigned during certain months).

In 2011, the StatLit web site has 57 htm pages in the main directory. Others include student-assigned pages (/GC) and the Keck Survey.

Navigation page views (2011; 2010; 2009; 2008) totaled (11,180; 9,716; 9,522; 8,474): Statistical Literacy (3,046; 2,729; 2,396; 2,100), StatLit News (2,162; 1,836; 1,928; 1,863), Authors (2,245; 1,980; 2,033; 1,860),  Statistical Reasoning (2,051; 1,617*; 1,625; 1,425) and Numeracy (1,676*; 1,554*; 1,540; 1,226).

Student-assigned page-views [all via /GC] were not totaled.    

TOP SITE SEARCH-PHRASES

Top phrases in search referrals to www.StatLit.org.
Search referrals (2011; 10; 09; 08; 07) References shown are likely targets. 

Search phrase totals (7,419; 14,022; 21,110) 

  1. Joel Best (238; 835; 1,147; 594): See Joel Best author page. [Billie Joel?]

  2. graphs (171; 567; 654; 634): Schield Percentage Graphs in USA Today

  3. Howard Wainer (137; 424;340; 110): See Howard Wainer author page.

  4. Statistical Literacy (237; 341; 385; 249): See Statistical Literacy. Includes "StatLit"

  5. Quantity words (317; 547; 264): Schield, Why Students Use 'Many'?

  6. Data (111; 80)

  7. Standardiz... (110; 240; 100; 131):  Schield, Adjusting for Confounding Graphically.

  8. Significance, substantial and statistical (110*; 168)

  9. Numeracy and Math across curriculum (57*; 197; 75; 60): See Numeracy

  1. Gerd Gigerenzer (44*; xxx)

  2. quantitative reasoning (28*; 22; 33):  See Numeracy or Q/L

  3. Simpson Paradox (19*; 45; 59; 54): Schield, "Adjust for Confounding Graphically".

  4. Social construction and ambiguity (13*; 38): See Schield, Teaching the Social Construction of Statistics

  5. Gerald Bracey (13*; 214; 94): See Gerald Bracey author page.

Each month, LiveStats ranks the search terms used and captures the top 20 with the associated number of referrals.  In 2011, this generated over a hundred unique search terms with 1,851 visits (plus 5,568 Other) for a total of 7,419 total search referrals. These search terms were grouped by search phrase  (so 'standardizing' and 'standardized' were counted together) into 45 groups.   Note that these numbers are very sensitive to how search terms are grouped into search phrases.  Note that most of the search referrals are tabulated under Other.

GOOGLE SITE RANKINGS

Google rated www.StatLit.org as the #1 site for Statistical Literacy for the 7th year. Google ranking (12/18/2011) of www.StatLit.org.

When two words are shown, they are searched as a phrase.

#1:  Statistical literacy, Joel Best, Howard Wainer, Othmar Winkler, statistical prevarication, chance grammar, percentage graphs, spurious association, statistical doublespeak.

 

Top 5: Dennis Haack (2), David Phyllis Whitin (2), percentage grammar (3), Marc-Isaacson statistics (3), standardizing (4), adult numeracy (4), social construction statistics (4),  data literacy (4), statistical paradoxes (4),  statistically literate (4), Lynn Steen (5), Milo Schield (5).

Top 10: Gerald Bracey (6), Jane-Miller statistics (6), Gigerenzer (7), John Paulos (7), interpreting doublespeak (8), Bernard Madison (10).

Top 30: Simpson's paradox (12), statistical reasoning (12), statistical illiteracy (15), multivariate thinking (18), statistically illiterate (19), USA Today graphs (21), numeracy (21).

Top 50:  quantity words (35), statistical education (36), journalistic significance (38), confounder (43).

This site was not in the first 50 for chance, confound, confounded, confounding, critical thinking, effect size, financial literacy, graphs, health literacy, health numeracy, induction, information literacy, innumeracy, interaction, Jane Watson, Katherine Wallman, quantitative literacy, quantitative reasoning, randomness, significance, social construction, spurious, standardization, statistics or Take care.

Process: Search on phrase (in quotes); Find first instance of statlit.org or Augsburg.edu/ppages/~schield [except for Milo Schield].

TOP 10 REFERRAL DOMAINS

Visits by Referral Domain.   Data (2011; 2010).  Total (46,742; 61,557)  Other (9,933; 8,563)

#0: www.dailyspeculations.com [linked to a picture]  (857; 11,393)

#1:  www.google.com   (12,693; 10,510)

#2:  ilt.ilstu.edu or pol.illinoisstate.edu   (10,761;  8,563)

#3:  www.google.co.uk (1,488; 1,263)

#4:  www.google.co.in (1,342; 1,040)

#5:    www.bing.com  (1,173; 1,056)  1,165

#6:    www.google.ca (1,023; 833)

#7:    www.analyticbridge.com (920, xxx)

#8:    search.yahoo.com   (792; 724)

#9     www.google.com.au  (702; 600)

#10:  scienceCampaign.org.uk (442, xxx) 

This site was last updated 11/10/21